Downsides to the Unemployment Insurance

Downsides to the Unemployment Insurance System

James Lee Fennell Jr

Strayer University

Research & Writing

ENG 215

Chrissy Faught

May 12, 2014

Downsides to the Unemployment Insurance System

Over the past few years, our government has created many social reforms to help improve our quality of living. Some of these reforms, such as women’s rights and the rights to education and religion have had a very positive impact on society as whole. Unfortunately, many people believe that reforms like the one created for unemployment are destroying our country. The Unemployment Insurance System (UI) was first created in 1935 during the Great Depression in order to help many of the nation’s workers, specifically those who found themselves without a job to provide the means to feed their growing families. As time progressed it evolved into a safety net for workers who became involuntary unemployed by providing a wage replacement payment while the employee sought suitable new work. It also alleviated any financial pressure on the employee to accept new employment that was not a good match between their skills and the employer needs. Today, many experts feel that the system has become a burden to the American people by encouraging unemployment, subsidizing and penalizing workers, and suppressing the need for personal savings.

“The basic unemployment insurance program is run by the states, although the U.S. Department of Labor oversees the system. The basic program in most states provides up to 26 weeks of benefits to unemployed workers, replacing about half of their previous wages, on average” (Stone & Chen, 2013, para. 2). While receiving these weekly benefits, it is the job of the employee to seek new and suitable work. However, various specialists believe that individuals don’t start looking for work until their benefits are about to run out. Instead of just taking whatever jobs may come around, many claimants will take more time to find better jobs...