Thank you all for sharing your ideas, which have really helped me sort it out and reach a conclusion.
Ed, in your first post in this thread, you wrote “if you need it, take the damn money.” Now the truth is, I don’t need the money. So initially I thought that maybe since this is not an emergency, since being temporarily unemployed will not leave me destitute, I should not take advantage of unemployment. But then it occurred to me, since when is need a decent means to determine the re-distribution of wealth? So, at that point, I was thinking of taking the damn money anyway!
Bob, your quote of Ayn Rand from The Objectivist was particularly helpful. I’d already read a similar bit of hers in Ayn Rand Answers. In both instances, she lumps collecting unemployment in with Social Security and state scholarships. But there’s a difference with unemployment, in that in my claiming it, it is not money that comes from the looters per se, but it will come in part from my former employer. I need to consider that it is not a general redistribution of wealth, but a burden that I would be choosing to place on one particular entity, as opposed to the collective.
So Ethan, when you suggested that I take as much back as I paid in taxes, I most definitely would, if it were only taking from the pot into which all my taxes were collected. But this money would come from another pot. Imagine Reardon Steel is forced to shut down, and all the former employees claim unemployment, it’s primarily Hank Reardon who will carry the burden.
Aaron, you are the one who really inspired me to consider this fact; to look at the specific context of how this money flows. In the final analysis, it was with the awareness of this context that I was able to arrive at my decision. Thank you.
Joe and Glenn, you both implied that the right to file for unemployment comes from the fact that I have paid into the system, and that I’m only getting my own money back. Is that true? I got out an old pay stub and there are tons of deductions including FED W/H, FICA INS, FICA MED,NY W/H, NY DISB, NYC TAX, and Union. Does unemployment use the money from any of these? I’m unclear about this.
So, Mike, you’ve been arguing the other side all on your own in this thread, finally asking, “Is there anyone who agrees with me on this?”
Well, I do. Or at least I do in my particular situation. I’ve decided that given the specific context, it is wrong for me to collect unemployment. Your points about self-esteem and sense of life are part of it, as well as considering my relationship and respect for my former employer, whose burden I don’t want to increase. Perhaps in another context, if I felt I could not survive without it, or if I felt my former employer owed me, I would reach a different conclusion.
Thank you all again for a good discussion and many terrific insights.
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