Why We have So Many Unemployed Veterans

Not everyone gets unemployment and disability and not everyone can go to school through the summers. The BEST case scenario I gave was 28k...much lower than your 40k+ numbers.

I got out as an E-4 then picked up E-5 a few months later in the IR, I frankly can't even remember what I put down on my unemployment. I got about 300 a week, but only for 4 months.

 

Then why did you use $200 as your unemployment assumption? And if you had BAH it would have been higher. Not to mention that your BAH level is hardly the average for college towns. It seems that your closer than you think.

 

200 was the number I found for Kansas. I was getting my 2300 BAH with my 320ish unemployment. As I was saying, I'm in pretty much the best location in the country to MAX benefits. In a perfect storm scenario I could barely pass 40k. It would hardly be average. The BAH here is double the rest of the country and the unemployment is higher too (400 in my school's city).

All that said, I generally agree with your point. With all my benefits considered (tuition, BAH, disability) over 4 years, the total monetary value of my GI bill/VA benefits will be in excess of 200k. About 40-50k of which is covered by my school. I am a very rare case though. I don't want people to think that ALL veterans are getting this. Most probably only get 1/2 to 1/3 of this, mostly because their tuition isn't 50k and they live in cheap areas.

 

Ok then. We will agree that the going rate is between $30,000 and $40,000 respectivly. So my thesis is correct. The OIF/OEF veterans arent really having trouble finding work but they would be insane not to take advantage of such benefits. We'll, except me. I passed on the unemployment. Couldent bring myself to take what wasent mine. Thats what we have working wives for anyway right?

 

Nobody wants to hire anybody.

You have to pay people at least 8 bucks an hour, conduct all this registration and regulation with the IRS and labor departments, and in several cases you even have to provide them with health care.

Why would I ever want to start my own business if I have to go through all this BS just to hire people?

 

I think the core point is pretty right - politicians are using stats of unemployed veterans to push pet bills.

It is hard for a veteran to pass up the opportunity to be a full-time student all expenses paid. Full-time students on the GI bill shouldn't count in the unemployment stats - especially since most aren't actually seeking work.

 

No, I agree that the average "range" is between 18k-28k with rare exceptions above it.

 

Pertaining to Combat Veterans being unemployed, its probably because there are not a lot of jobs that need people killed in large numbers in a single hour or so, within the USA mainland. Maybe on the other side of Mexican border, or maybe in Texas, but in general, not many in the other 49 states.

That could change in the near future, however, especially due to NDAA 2012 provision declaring USA mainland a battleground, and US citizens no longer afforded any special constitutional privelages(like 4th amendment) if declared by HSA,NSA,CIA, as terrorist suspects. Then some of us may experience some of that "inhanced" interrogation that George Bush, and Shawn Hannidy say is not torture, and that Obama says is no longer being practiced.

 

Even though probably less than 10% of all military people are actually directly trained to "kill" people.

 

Yes. Because doing otherwise would be yet another contradiction of something you've already posted. I got it.

 

Go back and reread my posts, then think about it. I never said anywhere the average was 40k. There are stipulations. You're going off of best case scenarios.

 

The reason for the high vertan unemployment is because they have been out of the workforce for so long, so do not have any directly applicable experience. Also, the type of people attracted into the military typically tend to be young males from rural areas or inner cities, so they return home to places with a lack of job opportunity. Many army recruits joined because of lack of opportunity elsewhere, which does not help the statistics when they get out. Yet another reason is because some of them have been in the military for many years, and never developed the skills to be able to financially take care of themselves, because the military mostly took care of all their needs, but salaries in the military are typically not very high, so these veterans come out with little savings.

But to address the underlying cause of high unemployment among veterans, the wider overall unemployment problem in society must be solved.

 

Thats a misnomer. People love to hire vets and we have no trouble finding good work.

 

People say they care about veterans, and make all sorts of little symbolic gestures. But when it comes down to the hard money, most people just do not really care that much. And employers have to make sound hiring decissions. they might prefer to hire a veteran, but what about when that veteran just does not have any related work experience, while another applicant does?

I have personally talked to a young unemployed American veteran (age 25). He tells me he cannot work because of "post-traumatic stress disorder", but when I started asking some questions, it became apparent to me that the only jobs available to him were unpleasant dead-end minimum wage jobs. No wonder he did not have enough motivation to work, and held so much frustration! Of course, being that he had never really worked in the private sector before, and came of age during the recession, he likely had no comparison to realise that this is not the way it is supposed to be. He did not have enough wisdom to blame the economy, so he just assumed the problem was some psychological disorder with himself.

 

Cant work because of PTSD huh? You do realize that he is not legally obligated to inform his employer of his disability and if they fire him for his disability he could be a very wealthy man. Govenment jobs specifically will give him preference over other veterans with lesser disability.

 

8 BUCKS AN HOUR? Well....THAT's the problem right there....way...waaaaaay too much! That's got to be a couple hundred bucks a week after taxes!

Why go through..blah,blah,blah..
Profit margins aren't high enough at 8 bucks an hour huh? What WOULD be low enough to motivate you?

 

To make more than $8 an hour. Which places you on the edge of poverty and eligible for food stamps in most parts of the country.

 

Lex Naturalis posted:
“Employers love to hire veterans way more so than civilians…”

Taxcutter says:
100% correct.

That many people leaving the military have skills that appear to be non-transferable is more the fault of civilians than the military. One of my clients wanted to hire a boiler operator. A retired E-8 nuke sent in a resume. The civilians didn’t even understand it. I raised Cain. “This is Tiffany’s calling! He knows more about making steam than any ten people you know!” They humored me, and now the guy runs their steam plant –efficient and safely. The civilians simply did not know what a bubblehead nuke does.

As for grunts, your average E-4 knows a good deal more about leadership than most civilian supervisors.




MaxGeorgeDicksteinXXI posted:
“Nobody wants to hire anybody.”

Taxcutter says:
Given the uncertainty of ObamaCare, can you blame them?





Anders Hoveland posted:
“…the type of people attracted into the military typically tend to be young males from rural areas or inner cities, so they return home to places with a lack of job opportunity.”

Taxcutter says:
The inner cities much less so than rural areas. Like all armed forces since the times of the Romans, the US military has found that urban males (on the average) are not as good at the military life as rural guys. But either urban or rural, when they leave the military and if they return home 9as most do) they hit the same reality that was there when they joined the service: No job opportunity. That is probably why they enlisted in the first place.



Taxcutters’ job-hunting advice for young veterans: North Dakota. The oil patch folks love veterans and they pay very well.

 

The stimulus failed to produce any meaningful amount of jobs in the private sector even though Obama claimed the number would be 90%.

 

He didn't lie, they were simply created in other places other than the US of A. That what happens when you have the best government corporate money can buy.

Nothing will change when the repubicans assumes command.

 

This really isn't as uncommon as you are suggesting. During the summer you only need to take 6 or 9 credit hours to be full time? I forget but it's less than what it is during the school year.

I'm pretty sure at my school it was 6 credit hours. I always stayed on campus over the summer and took 2 classes because I loved being on campus during the summer. The weather was beautiful, I loved the college town, and campus was always so empty and laid back during the summer.

 

Agreed, right now this is where I'm at, although I have not filed for unemployment.

I'm going to school full time, year around, and work 3 part time jobs. With the pell grant, GI bill, and my jobs, I make $26K a year

 

I took 16 credit hours over the summer....that's what I had to do to be a full time student. Some schools are a little different. However, you have to remember that your GI bill only lasts 36 months. If you meet the minimum "full-time" standards you'll find yourself with a large bill your last semester or two.