Do We Need Jobless Benefits?

Many developed countries provide unemployment benefits in order to help people to survive if they do not have a job. Of course, such idea is very good but such benefits sometimes lead to laziness. As I heard in some European countries some people do not want to work because benefits that they get are enough in order to live very well. One person from Germany said that he has known families whose several generations have not worked and lived only thanks to such social assistance.

I understand countries and politicians who promote jobless benefits. Sometimes it is better to give some money than to be accused by global community in savageness if an unemployed person dies from hunger. Moreover, such assistance can help people who get jobless to avoid depression. Maybe it is cheaper to give money than to spend huge financial resources to cure people from alcoholism and depression (in my previous article about alcoholism and depression you can read how it can be dangerous).

I think that in order to avoid laziness, the amount of such benefits should not be very high and should be provided during several months only. Such practice can stimulate people to search jobs. As I know some countries use such practice.

One of my friends has not worked for two years. His family is survived thanks to salary of his wife and benefits that he gets. As I can observe, they live not so bad. Moreover, absence of work gives him opportunity to spend more time with their children and care about them. In addition, he is not a lazy person. He behaves like housewife. Every day he cleans flat, cooks and goes to a shop to buy products. Moreover, his wife is very happy. Thanks to her husband or maybe his every day assistance she has recently got promotion because she has a chance to spend more time at work. Now she is an executed vice president in a very big constructing company.