The “Stimulus” Will Put The Unemployed Back To Work By Making It Easier To Be Unemployed

Typical liberal logic:

WASHINGTON – More jobless workers would get fatter unemployment checks longer in the massive economic recovery package moving forward in Congress.
Helping the nation’s jobless has not been a controversial part of the stimulus package. Both the House and Senate versions offer an extra $25 a week in jobless benefits to millions of workers through the end of the year. The current average weekly benefit is roughly $300.
It also would keep unemployment checks coming through the end of 2009 for more than 3 million people whose state benefits will run out after March.
The nation lost nearly 600,000 jobs last month, the worst showing in a third of a century, as a vicious cycle of cutbacks by consumers forced ever more layoffs by beleaguered employers. The unemployment rate catapulted to 7.6 percent, the highest in 16 years, and seemed headed for double digits.

Now you may feel that increased benefits to help out people without a job is the right thing to do. But emotion, as opposed to logic (the basic divide between liberal and conservative philosophies), usually isn’t a good way to decide policy. The truth is that creating cushier unemployment entitlements only leads to more unemployment.
Remember a few years ago when college-aged kids were rioting in France over proposed reforms to unemployment entitlements and labor laws? At the same time, unemployment among young French workers was 23%. Why so high? Because France’s labor laws make it almost impossible to lay off workers without paying them heavy benefits, so many employers are loathe to hire young, entry-level workers in the first place.
And this is carried out by the fact. Unemployment in Europe, where unemployment benefits dwarf those available in America, typically lasts a good deal longer than in the United States. Because with plentiful benefits available, workers can afford to wait a lot longer before the need to work becomes pressing enough to force them back into the job market.
It may sound cruel, but there’s no denying fact. The more comfortable you make the unemployed the less likely they are to get back into the job market. Meanwhile, the more people we have collecting unemployment benefits the more burden workers and businesses must carry.
To be perfectly blunt, the expansions of unemployment benefits in the “stimulus” are going to do the exact opposite of stimulating the economy. They’re going to further stagnate the economy.
But hey, we did the nice thing, so it’s ok right?