Do you think she really wants to work?

There was an article recently in the paper about a couple who have fallen on hard times. They worked in the RV industry, and both were laid off eleven months ago. "What if we don't have cash to buy milk, eggs, bread or diapers," he asks. "What if our unemployment benefits run out?"

I usually can't resist reading these things, because I just know that one day, they'll have a legitimately needy couple featured. However, this wasn't the day.

The first thing that bothered me was that when they went to the food pantry for some free food, he sent her in and he stayed in the car. The lazy oaf shouldn't be forcing his wife to go beg for food. They then went to the Salvation Army to get help on the electric bill. That free food must be pretty good, because he's gained 40 pounds in the eleven months he's been unemployed. Of course, that could be because he spends his days sitting in the recliner and playing solitaire.

Then she says she's behind on her K-Mart lay-away. The article doesn't say what she bought, so I'll just bet it wasn't a necessity.

We then get a little background on this poor couple. He made $53,000 a year -- not a tremendous salary, but certainly enough to live fairly comfortably on. The article says, "After work he was the man at the bar with the thick roll of bills . . . buying round after round for himself and his friends. He took his son on a fishing trip. He took his family out to eat and told them to order whatever they wanted." He saved nothing. He said his objectives had always been to "cover the rent, eat an occasional steak, feed and clothe their children, ride his dirt bike, fish, golf, play poker, buy lottery tickets and drink Bud Light." Sounds like part of his problems are due to his own lack of foresight.

He doesn't even have a game plan now. His look for work has been that he "walked into this place or that place looking for work, unnanounced visits that resulted in nothing." Wonder why? He heard about an RV plant that was hiring, but he wanted more information before he wasted any gas chasing rumors. Yeah, right.

Remember how he wondered if they would have enough money for milk, eggs, bread, and diapers? Well, gosh darn if they don't have enough money for Marlboro Lights. And instead of peanut butter and jelly which I'd be eating before I begged for food, the wife is sitting at the Subway eating a foot-long. While she's eating, she gets an email on her Blackberry. Wonder where the money for that service comes from? Maybe that's why they can't buy milk and eggs and diapers for the baby.

The message on the Blackberry is that a chiropractor needs a bookkeeper and she can come in for an interview. Even though she's offered the job, she turns it down -- it's only 28 hours a week and no benefits, she says. Well, if my unemployment benefits are running out, I'd say 28 hours beats zero hours. And I can tell you that at least twice in my life, I've been offered jobs by customers/clients I interacted with at places where I worked. Having even a part-time job exposes you to contacts and opportunities you don't get when you sit at home in the recliner playing solitaire.

Then, I have to wonder why these people have so much trouble budgeting their money. Between the two of them, they're taking in $34,216 a year in unemployment benefits. Again, that's not a tremendous amount of money, but it should be enough to live on.

If they want me to cry a river, they're going to have to come up with a better example than this one.

"What if we never find jobs?" The Dallas Morning News; August 8, 2009; p. 17A.