These first few weeks in July 2010 some 2.5 million Americans will not receive unemployment checks because U. S. Senators from across the Land could not take their wealthy salaries, perks, and insurance and donate them all to the pool of money needed to protect families across America from weeks with no income.
TWO AND A HALF MILLION AMERICANS GOING UNPAID
Many of these same Senators pointed fingers at one another and said the-other-guy-was-the-one who refused to cut the federal budget elsewhere; therefore, 2.5 million of Americans could not and would not receive help. (Few Senators seem to care about the probable major double-dip-recession TO BE created by Washington and state governments who are CURRENTLY not willing to spend the country out of this Banking, Financier, and DOD debt and recession. )
Think about it. In a way, the U.S. Senators are laying off 2.5 million already unemployed Americans--i.e. without pay--once again.
THE UNPAID UNEMPLOYED
As many more Americans are underemployed and not eligible for unemployment insurance, there are now certainly Americans these days who are scrounging upmoney and part-time jobs here and there.
Sometimes these underemployed Americans earn a lot doing part-time work.
Others just get by day-by-day. Today, one lady on NPR noted that her only income now---aside from unemployment insurance (the insurance she has now been laid off from), was only occasionally doing stints of photography for weddings. NOTE: The woman likely signed no contract for such odd jobs.
One can hardly live from such occasional work. However, more than 2.5 million Americans (and their families) will have to try.
WORSE STILL
It is worse still when employers or contractors refuse to pay, especially for non-contract labor.. That is: I f and when an employer in the US fails to pay a fully (written) contracted worker, state and federal laws allow worker who have a written contract to quickly go to court--and there are lawyers who will help out (for a fee or future fee). However, the person who agrees to work simply based on a gentleman's agreement,--i.e. for a day or a few weeks, as occurs with harvest workers in my home state of Kansas--, really need to pray for a very honest employer.
This issue comes up a lot during harvest time in the Midwest, but it also is an all-year-round issue in most Right-to-Work-States (like Kansas), where employers have an even stronger position over employers than elsewhere.
ANECDOTES, WALNUTS & CORNFIELDS
When one is a young high school student (and short of cash), one is quite happy to get job offers, i.e. to mow lawns, to work fields, clean houses and garages, or to help with construction The first harvesting effort (which I went unpaid for) was at the age of 15 or 16. That month, my dad had mentioned that there was a woman living catty-corner to our house (down across the main street in town) who was looking for help. That lady had many walnut trees, but she did not harvest walnuts or use them for any purpose. When I approached her, she said she would pay me so much per bag and the job would take a few hours. I should note that it was made clear to me that I would not get paid until my job of walnut harvesting was completed.
