I can't understand all this talk and all these articles and headlines about work shortages. Half the people I know are unemployed but can't find jobs.

@dancingtongue Universal benefits sounds like a fantastic idea to me. It's hard to work at all if you can't go to the doctor or dentist.

@BlueMetalChick Well, you have 3 options for that: a Single Payer System which Conservatives veto, the Affordable Care Act where you mandate a minimum level of coverage and make it available through a competitive market of health care providers/insurers (originally a Conservative think tank alternative for the Single Payer System pushed by Obama so now referred to as Obamacare), and Medicare For All which is a mashup of elements from both. Good luck in finding any of those inside the borders of the U.S. as long as it is a rallying cry for the far right. Available only in every other industrialized society on the planet.

@dancingtongue FUCKING
THANK
YOU
Nobody brings up that the ACA was originally a conservative think tank concept.

@BlueMetalChick They don't like to be reminded of their flip-flops. They think only Kerry ever did one.

@BlueMetalChick It’s literally Romneycare on a larger scale.

@QuixoticSoul Exactly. Which got Romney disowned as a RINO.

@dancingtongue This all is exactly right!

It's only going to get worse.

@Peapod Yep. The problem is that there are no more middle class jobs -- or I should say, jobs with middle class pay and benefits. The corporations have shifted all the pay and benefits to the top 1% while stripping the lower level jobs of benefits any way they could and essentially freezing pay levels, with less than cost-of-living increases at best. So the competition for truly "middle class jobs" is intense among over qualified candidates, and people cannot survive in their current life style on the jobs open to them, leaving them the option of taking entry level pay and going homeless or punting. Single quickest and biggest fix? Make Affordable Care Act work so everyone has benefits, can thus survive on the lower pay, and employers have both cost-certainity and less pressure on the benefits side. But instead we have all these people fighting to revoke it. Second and less effective fix, because it will affect consumer prices more, is raise the minimum wage to a livable wage forcing employers to deal with their inability to hire. What should be the third fix, and only for truly entry level jobs no one else wants, is immigration reform. It is where we always have gotten entry level workers, who produce second generations that revitalize us and build us.

@dancingtongue If only.

I was laid off a decade ago and did backflips to get another job. I was turning 50, but I was hardly old and incapacitated. I had a solid resume with many current skills that could qualify me for many good jobs. I applied to countless companies and finally got a few interviews. Most of those interviews were for jobs that were "internal positions". I actually started to ask about that after a while. I gave up after 2 years of actively looking. I was fortunate that my husband could support us on his income alone. But it still shook me up because I always could find employment quite easily before this.

I too completely understand the gross problem we have with healthcare. Long before I was ever laid off (and remarried), I was painfully aware that any job loss would have been disastrous since I always [i]had[/i] to work to live, support my family, and be able to go to a doctor. There was a time I even supported my ex while he was out of work.

It's a stress that I wish on no one.

Healthcare should be a right, not a luxury.

If our economy keeps going this way with corporate greed unabated, we all will pay the price.