Of course, that's why I pay tax. I actually had saved money anyway, but the peace of mind you get from getting unemployment money is priceless. At the end, as I said, it's exactly like a car or health insurance. Almost no one can pay for a cancer treatment or a major car accident with no insurance, but not everyone will have to go through that in their life time so we all chip in and make the world a better place. There will always be people gaming the system, we should obviously take care of that in a way but it shouldn't be the focus.
It's always easy to say "I" save, "I'm" frugal. Yeah ok, we're software engineers, project managers, &c. and make 3-10x the minimum wage regardless of the country we live in. We spend dozens of hours every few months on this site debating about how the new $4k macbook keyboard suck while most people wouldn't be able to afford one if they saved for a year... I don't think most of us are equipped for this discussion.
I'm not sure about "the frugal north" vs "the spendthrift south", maybe system wise, but having lived in france, germany, california and greece I can say people as individual mostly live the same life and want the same things.
tbf I think the GP has a point about senseless consumption &c. but the whole "if you saved money you wouldn't need help" is bs on every level. Even I and my, so far, privileged life can see that as an individual things can quickly turn bad and spin out of your control.
Of course, that's why I pay tax. I actually had saved money anyway, but the peace of mind you get from getting unemployment money is priceless. At the end, as I said, it's exactly like a car or health insurance. Almost no one can pay for a cancer treatment or a major car accident with no insurance, but not everyone will have to go through that in their life time so we all chip in and make the world a better place. There will always be people gaming the system, we should obviously take care of that in a way but it shouldn't be the focus.
It's always easy to say "I" save, "I'm" frugal. Yeah ok, we're software engineers, project managers, &c. and make 3-10x the minimum wage regardless of the country we live in. We spend dozens of hours every few months on this site debating about how the new $4k macbook keyboard suck while most people wouldn't be able to afford one if they saved for a year... I don't think most of us are equipped for this discussion.
I'm not sure about "the frugal north" vs "the spendthrift south", maybe system wise, but having lived in france, germany, california and greece I can say people as individual mostly live the same life and want the same things.
tbf I think the GP has a point about senseless consumption &c. but the whole "if you saved money you wouldn't need help" is bs on every level. Even I and my, so far, privileged life can see that as an individual things can quickly turn bad and spin out of your control.