Examiner: 99ers Grow As Suicide Risk

I have called the much-ballyhooed "tax-cut/unemployment extension" stimulus bill misleading in how it was initially presented to the American people by President Obama -- and now an article by Roz Zurko writing for the Hartford Pop Culture Examiner, in a way, represents the other shoe dropping.

As articles about that bill trumpeted repeatedly: "The measure would renew jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed ..." It will do that, but where the misleading part comes in is: it will renew benefits only for some of them. It won't do anything for the 99ers, those who have been unemployed for about two years and have used up all their extensions. I think the blurring of reality was a deliberate and shameful act on the part of the President in not making clear what was happening with that bill: who would be helped, and who wouldn't.

Now what do we have to look forward to? I am going to quote from Zurko's article; I recommend you all click the link and read the whole article. You may be lucky enough to have a job, but chances are you know someone who doesn't and quite possibly someone in your family may be a 99er. And who told you you were going to have your job forever? What contract did you sign? The truth is, only the slightest thread holds all of us over the abyss. The longer you are unemployed, the more money you burn up and the more reliant you become on the state's cash. However, the worst part is, what happens to your skills when you are unemployed for two years? Three years? To an employer, you experience whithers and dies. Unless you can develop some sort of freelance business -- which I urge anyone in this position to do -- you will have a really tough time when the market turns around, as it will inevitably.

Now I quote from Zurko's article:

"An unemployed extension 2011 for the 99ers is desperately needed as new 99ers are born each week. One side affect of being unemployed, which is not often talked about, is the increased risk of suicide. A massive study from Yale University in New Haven Connecticut has shown a direct correlation between the unemployed and the suicide rate. Without a 2011 unemployment extension in place for the 99ers the risk factor of being unemployed, is now compounded with the possibilities of losing all the things they worked for all their lives due to lack of income. This now becomes an extra stressor added to this correlation.

"The substantial increase in suicide hot line calls across the country is the latest indication of how the unemployment situation is also coinciding with the increase of suicidal intentions, according to the website My Bank Tracker. In the first five months of this year the suicide hot line calls went up 18%. Many of the reports are citing the economical problems as being the major consideration for people calling in that are in danger of committing suicide, according to My Bank Tracker.

"Stories of the unemployed who have committed suicide after losing their homes or who are in financial crisis are in the news across the nation. The 99er’s should be of specific concern to the government, with their risks highest of all out of the unemployed.

"The longer the person is unemployed, the higher their risk becomes according to the Yale study. This coupled with the fact the 99ers have no income due to a lack of an unemployment extension in which they are included, puts them in a very vulnerable place ..." READ THE REST.