OUTsurance

The recent statements by several politicians (the founders would have been horrified to learn that "politician" is a job description) about the ambition-killing evils of unemployment insurance reminds me how ignorant most people are about what said insurance actually is.

What it is is insurance. It's right there in the name. Unemployment insurance. Certain politicians are claiming that the unemployed would rather collect benefits than find a job. They term these benefits "welfare". They paint a picture of people who would rather have other people pay for their upkeep than work for themselves.

Insurance, of course, is not welfare. Insurance is.....well, its insurance. You pay IN. And if the worst happens, the insurance company pays OUT.

With car insurance, you pay in. If your car crashes, the insurance company pays out. When an insured motorist has their car fixed after an accident, does anyone term that "welfare"?

With health insurance, you pay in. If your health crashes, the insurance company (in theory) pays out. When an insured mother gets to stay in the hospital for 2 days after giving birth, does anyone term that "welfare"?

With unemployment insurance, you pay in. If your job crashes, the insurance pays out. By what logic would anyone term that "welfare"?

This is not an argument against welfare; it's simply a statement of fact: unemployment insurance is NOT welfare. It's insurance. If you've never paid IN, you do not collect. Every person currently collecting unemployment is only doing so because they have already paid IN.

What is the logical conclusion of those who call unemployment insurance "welfare"? It is this: people should pay into the unemployment insurance pool, but they should never draw insurance payments FROM that pool.

So people should pay their car insurance, but when they're in an accident, they should pay for the damages from their own pocket. And presumably, they should keep paying into the pool as well.

To argue that people collecting unemployment are on welfare and have no incentive to work is like saying that people who have their car crashes covered by insurance are on welfare and have an incentive to keep getting in car accidents.

It is also equivalent to saying that health insurance is an incentive for people to get cancer. If health insurance pays out when people get sick, then presumably people will WANT to be sick. Does anyone believe that? Yes. Politicians.

It's bad enough that the United States has a shredded welfare system. It's bad enough that we force ourselves to pay protection money to private companies to guard against car crashes, diseases, or lost jobs.

What makes it even worse is when politicians castigate us for having the audacity to actually demand protection when the worst happens to us. They tell us that paying protection money is an incentive for us to crash our cars, break our bones, and lose our jobs.

By this logic, any person who buys life insurance is given an incentive to kill themselves....if that's the case, I can only hope that these venal politicians have life insurance.