America Not Working

STARTING YESTERDY, another one million Americans, approximately, not only have no job, they no longer have unemployment benefits. Many of the people involved have interesting and compelling stories. Hard working, professional, successful people who suddenly, through no fault of their own, lose their jobs, and then are unable to find another. An unemployment rate of around five percent is probably healthy and normal, because at any given time, out of every one hundred workers, it makes sense that five of them might be in between jobs, unemployed, for one reason or another, reasons related to personal situations, and not the general economy. But our unemployment rate is considerably higher than five percent, as if the economy doesn't function properly, or as if the powers that be want high unemployment, to keep the cost of labor down. With our technology and productivity, we should all be rich by now, with free energy, free food, free everything. But something went wrong. Almost as if something is wrong with the system itself, the economic, financial, and political system. We all agree that there should be some limit to unemployment benefits, and probably for disability benefits as well, which have become, in many cases, unemployment benefits. What would the savings be if annual cost of living increases were eliminated for all govenment payouts? The savings could be invested in a government program offering any unemployed person employment, planting trees, or something equally productive. Anybody who can sit and watch television all day can sit in front of a computer screen for eight hours a day, doing something productive, and getting paid for it. In our modern computerized world, no one need be considered "disabled"! Unlock the full power of human employment!