Peter Schiff: "We are creating a class of permanently unemployed Americans"

by Rob Argento

In the clip below Peter Schiff comments on extending unemployment benefits for up to 99 weeks.

Says Peter, "That's creating more inflation, because the money that pays the unemployment benefits has to be printed, because we don't have it, we're running a huge deficit. Meanwhile the more money we give people to remain unemployed the longer they're going to stay unemployed. The more attractive we make it for people not to work the less likely it will be that they will go out and work."

"We are creating a class of permanently unemployed Americans who are living on unemployment benefits. They're not being productive so we're having more money chasing a fewer supply of goods."

I agree with Peter that we are indeed "creating a class of permanently unemployed Americans ." But I doubt that Peter really means that unemployment benefits are what creates unemployment. I also doubt that many people would prefer to remain on meager benefits that cannot even cover their basic needs for food, clothing and shelter rather than take a job that does.

So, what does most often create unemployment of the previously employed? Among other things I would submit that Illegal immigration, automation, and offshoring of entire American industries create much more unemployment in the USA today than extended unemployment benefits. Let's not forget that the previously employed had been employed until they got laid off. Most did not ask to get laid off and most are looking for somebody to hire them but there aren't enough jobs being created by the "new economy" in America in the age of globalization. The free trade agreements expanded by presidents Clinton and Bush and continued by the current president are offshoring high-paying manufacturing jobs to Brazil, Russia, India and China faster than the US economy can replace them. The result is that we are, as Peter has eloquently spoken, "creating a class of permanently unemployed Americans ."

So the question, I submit, is not "Should we extend unemployment benefits?" but rather ,"Should we return to the pro-American trade, fiscal, and industrial policies that once made America the wealthiest, most productive, and most free people in the history of the world?"