So, you're against extending unemployment benefits, given the extraordinary conditions we're in now?

Well, I didn't mean that the US should want to deport the child, but that the parents should be allowed to take the child with them, if they wish (and if the child is too young to make a decision of this magnitude), when they get deported.  There's a difference to me.   

How long after being laid off from "Buggy Whips Inc" should the lead buggy whip designer give up on finding a comparable position with another buggy whip manufacturer, and accept a (likely lower paying) lower level job in another industry? If he is earning more on unemployment than he will at this lower level job what is the likelihood that he will ever accept the position?

If you were hiring someone to fill a position are you going to seriously consider the candidate who has been on unemployment for 3 years?

IF the government gives out any unemployment benefits, it should be simple:

Use a few hundred million dollars to help these people find new jobs. Nothing more.

Maybe, just maybe, some people are in the wrong careers in the wrong areas, and need to find employment somewhere else in the USA. I wonder if Richard could find a job with his masters somewhere that isn't Rochester NY.

Let's bring forth another thing that is needed to act as currency in an economy: The item used as currency has to be in sufficient supply, that people can get ahold of it.  In Zinbabwe, they can mine for gold.  The properties of gold work well as currency (durable and really not of much use for anything).  HOWEVER, in the United States, do you think that people will have gold in sufficient quantities that they would be able to use it as currency?

If the economy of the United States melted down, expect to find a complex barter system to develop, where people would end up swapping electronics and other goods for one another.  

As far as a "survival economy" goes, what do you think America would be if things totally broke down?  Things go into survival mode.   

If the jobs aren't here, then hard to get trained for them.  I am also not in Rochester.  I am near Poughkeepsie.  I am currently lining up part time office cleaning work.  That is how my Masters is being put to use.  The reality is there isn't any good place to get a job in IT now at all.  And I have no clue what ever to target.  If I were to get certification in SQL Server, does that mean I get a job? They say, if you haven't worked in the IT industry in over 6 months, your career is over. As of now, the amount of money I would bring in would leave me around $100  a month total, after paying student loans (the rate things are going, I am going to likely have to default on them).  Being over 40 years old doesn't help either.  I am likely NEVER going to ever retire.  Social security is likely going to fail to over time .

In regards to "help people find new jobs", they do that.  They have employment centers.  Microsoft is giving people Windows XP certification training.  Answer me how that is going to count in the IT industry, and help people get jobs.

What I do know is that people who aren't in the situation I am have NO clue to how messed up things are.  You can seriously fall great heights and possibly never recover.  And it is happening with more and more frequency.  This is a reason why people fear illegal aliens.  The belief is that manual labor and also the emergency room are believe to always be there.  Well, no guarantee of that.

...Have you given your resume to any companies outside of Poughkeepsie? How about the IT jobs for the state of New York via civil service examinations?

Somehow, I doubt with a state as large as NY, there are "0" IT jobs.

Did a search for you:

http://jobsearch.monster.com/PowerSearch.aspx?tjt=IT&where=New York&rad=20&rad_units=miles&tm=60&dv=

How many jobs have you applied for, here?

Also, have you worked in IT for more than 6 months? How are you using IT on a self-employment basis? What is your masters in, exactly? What languages do you code in? Have you tried free-lancing via oDesk, E-Lance or Scriptlance?

I could dump on you pages and pages lists of places I have applied to over the past few years.  Actually far more than that.  Calculate an average of 3 jobs a week over the past 3 years, and you have an idea of how many I have applied to.  I am actually a sales rep for a company, and I can gtet $10 a month for signing clients up.  No benefits or anything.  I found the service doesn't make sense to people at all, and those that it does, they seek alternatives.  It isn't something that makes sense at all as a lead product.  I have received multiple rejection letters from local banks and the power company to, for a customer service rep position.

As far as state jobs, I am in the system, and had multiple interviews.  Nothing came through.  They likely went with local candidates or people with fresher experience.  And, to be blunt, indeed.com is superior to Monster.  It enables you to fail faster and get on with your life.

I have done it all.  No one can explain what I haven't done.  It is just the way it is.  I know it is easy to think that it is a snap and totally someone else's fault.  Ok, consider this case of someone I know:

Director level experience, and managed help desk divisions for casinos.  Has ideal experience, decades.  Is in Vegas, but interviewed for a position in Florida he would be ideal for.  He didn't get it (I would of got a position if it had happened.  You know what he is doing now?  Helpdesk for less than $10/hr. taking phone calls.  Yes, that is him.  So, those who have this Libertarian mindset and believe that the rugged individuals can pull of everything by themselves, seriously need to stuff it, because they don't know what they are talking about.  You can get screwed in life.  It happens.

My Masters is in Information Systems.  My BS is in Management.  I should be a system analyst somewhere, but it never happened.  In regards to doing work, I get people wanting me to do pro-bono work, if I am lucky at that.  Or straight up commission sales.  The reality is that businesses don't want to go through the headaches in this area.  It has been awhile since I actually have done any coding.  And the issue I have had is that I don't have portfolio work I can show, as it belonged with IBM when I left. 

I had experience from 1997-2004 in IT at IBM (AIX system admin, software test and some development, along with ISO type QA).  I then from 2004-2005 and then 2006-2007 as a contractor doing level 1 and level 2 helpdesk.  Since then started a non-profit, and had gone through a bankruptcy (got involved with a start up that wasn't able to raise money and burned through my 401K money in the process).  I couldn't find even any volunteer work for a non-profit so I started one.  Next up, I managed to get a social network site off the ground for games. 

When I did get oDesk, I had one of these things pop up again for straight up sales rep work, without pay, and maybe some commission.  Oh yes, and I can talk about craigslist, but people want freebie stuff there.

So, now it is onto lining up part-time office cleaning work, if that works out. 

I will say, one thing of NO benefit here is to turn this into the Book of Job and try to figure out what went wrong.  Only thing that matters is having things work.  No one has answers at all here.  Just know people can get bad luck and fall through the cracks and no one be there to catch them at all.  It happens, no matter how much of an idealist people think they are or think you can listen to Donald Trumps.  What I can tell you is I do have enough knowledge I can explain where people end up stupid.