Yes,
@Dave , we are paying them to go fishing. We are paying them to stay home, we are paying them to do less. The saddest thing is, in one way even I can understand it. If you made say, 500 a week, and the got laid off and the gov't was giving you 400 week in unemployment, and the federal gov't started throwing in another 300 a week.... so instead of making 500 a week you are now making 700 a week, would you really go back to work ? If you were getting an extra 200 a week, which might actually be helping you to get ahead of your bills, get caught up, and actually be able to buy something you needed or even something you have been wanting.... AND you were not paying for gas to have to go to work every day, AND you were not having to get up extra early to go or get home late, AND you were not tired and grumpy and stressed and always in a hurry or always mad at the kids, AND you got to go out and go fishing that you never had time to do before....... AND AND AND.... would you go back to work?????? For some, especially those with kids, you actually had a little time to be a better parent..... and could enjoy your kids.... or for a single parent that you were not always juggling schedules and could actually give your kid a fair amount of your time as a parent and enjoy their childhood....would you go back to work????
No, not all, or even many of the people taking advantage of the unemployment stuff, are like this. But I have friends, 2 different scenarios, and I point blank asked them..... Because I am still working, and struggling with the knees, and at retirement age not in the position they are in. One is a 2 household income family, one is a single parent household. Both sat down and showed me on paper, their finances and how much better off they were without working.... and how much better off the kids were. One actually went to homeschooling, that she always wanted to do, because she had the time, and did not feel like she was putting undue stress on her spouse, financially, by "staying home" . The single mom told me that she was able for the first time to actually not wonder how to pay her monthly bills, and was actually amassing a little bit of a cushion, so when she did go back to work, she could better manage and was further ahead than she had ever been.
Both said that they were wanting to go back to work, and could not justify it financially. I get it.
I know that there are many just too d#@ned lazy to work, and won't go back until they have to. There are alot that are also of the "gimme generation", that have never had to deprive themselves of the "I want it now" mentality.... and the parents have made it way to easy for the kids to not to ever strive to better themselves. There are way too many that "work the system" to get all they can with no thought to the fact that others are having to struggle to provide for their "lazy a$$es" because of the "I am entitled to what I want" or " the gov't says I can get this and that so I want it"....
As was stated by another poster, there is also very little company loyalty anymore, for a devoted employee who comes to work and does a good job and wants a little recognition in the form of a better wage or other "bonuses"... either.... That might change with this mess, but I think alot more will go to automation, and then one of these days it is going to catch up with all these "lazy" people when there suddenly isn't any gov't checks because the gov't is broke and there aren't any of us "working people" to keep paying for their lazy a**es to sit at home.... or we are dead and there is no one to even teach them how to grow their own food so they don't starve.
I don't know the answer, but I do think that the states that are taking this "extra" money and trying to turn it into incentives and positives to come back to work, is at least a positive step forward.
The other thing is, is the lack of sense of self, and responsibility, and the inability to be proud of something for what and how you do it, not just for the monetary return. I am not sure of how that can be fixed or turned around when everything is so often equated with money and not self esteem just for a job well done.