CNBC’s John Melloy Insults Americans who are Suffering

In an article for CNBC’s Fast Money web site, John Melloy took to task Government support for those on unemployment and even lumped it in with “welfare state handouts”. This is insulting right from the get go and ignores the word “insurance” which is supposed to follow the word unemployment. Workers and employers pay in contributions in order to provide coverage for those who are laid off or fired without just cause. We are not talking about people who purposely quit their jobs simply because they were tired of working and thought it would be nice to lay about the house. These are hard working Americans caught in a terrible economic crunch.

Wealth

Also listed in the category of “welfare state handouts” is social security. There are parts of social security that might be considered “welfare”, for instance aid to the disabled who are incapable of work and have never paid into the system (SSI) for instance. Old age retirement is a different story however. Again, we are discussing people who have paid into the system for long periods of time and have every reason to believe that they did this to be “insured” for their retirement. Calling all of social security a handout is tantamount to claiming that State Farm is giving handouts when it pays on claims. The word insurance is inserted into these programs for a reason.
Then Melloy goes on to point to the standard solutions for the economic fix that our government is in – take away benefits from our most vulnerable citizens. This recommendation comes at a time when, the wealthy are becoming more wealthy and pay miniscule shares of taxes in comparison to the “working Joes.” Warren Buffet has famously stated that his maid pays more in taxes than he does.
Corporations are racking up record profits in many sectors, yet they not only pay less in taxes on a percentage basis, many industries are actually receiving tax subsidies. What does it take to wake people up to the fact that many (perhaps not all) of America’s financial woes can be solved by asking the wealthy and the corporations that they own to pay their fair share? Perhaps we need more people taking to the streets to let the rulers of this nation know that we are not going to sit and watch as they destroy the final remnants of the social safety net. Enough is enough!

Poverty