Jobless Protest at Tree Lighting Gets News Blackout

Media outlets from across America and around the world looked on rapturously last night as tens of thousands LED lights were switched on the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree. But despite all the journalists on the scene, it looks like only the Daily News noticed that there was another, less joyfully manufactured aspect to last night's festivities. Some 40 unemployed demonstrators were also at Rockefeller Center last night to protest the end of unemployment benefits, which will affect nearly millions Americans starting, oh, now.

Chanting "Merry Christmas! You're Fired!" the protesters carried signs that read, "Keep the Lights on for the Unemployed" and "We Need Jobs Not Another Korean War." By New Year's Eve, 95,000 people in NYC are expected to lose their benefits, and 200,000 will be cut off statewide. "Just in time for Christmas, people are going to lose their only lifeline that's let them hold onto a semblance of the life they knew," one organizer, Sam Talbot, 33, told the News.

Hold the phone, could that be THE Sam Talbot, the dashingly handsome chef and restaurateur whom you may recall from Top Chef and The Real Housewives of New York City? Well, we suppose it is tough making ends meet while he waits for his hotly anticipated new restaurant in the Mondrian Hotel to open. The 180-seat restaurant will be called Imperial No. 9, and highlight Talbot's interpretation of modern east coast seafood—Oh wait, this post is supposed to be about the poor unemployed people, not celebrity chefs! It's just so hard to stay focused on the bad news with all these glamorous stars. Anyway, unless lawmakers take action, 2 million unemployed Americans will be cut off by Christmas. Ho, ho, ho.

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By John Del Signore in News on December 1, 2010 3:40 PM

Comments [rss]

MermaidFornicator

being on unemployment sucks. you are constantly looking for a job. don't confuse unemployment with welfare, they are different. how can we extend benefits? maybe obama should end the two wars that bush started.

JMH

It sucks big time that these folks have been out of work for as long as they have, but I just don't see how we can afford to keep paying out these benefits. We're hamstringing ourselves for decades to come the way things are going.

Cathy Millen

Well idiot-quit your job and then see how much fun it is sitting around all day eating bon-bons. Oh and by the way keep us informed 6 mos or a year from now about your job search. Let us know how you are stretching your $275 to $400 before taxes to cover your mortgage, health care, utilities and other assorted debts. We would love to have your input.
It is unfortunate that the 1 person featured in this story happened to be a very poor representation of what is going on in this country.

jibbly

Seriously, being unemployed was one of the nastiest, ugliest periods of my life. I don't know how other people react to it, but it was really humiliating and exhausting. My only consolation was that it was in 2008 and I didn't feel completely alone in my misery because so many other people were freaking the fuck out hustling to find a decent job.

whoknewit

Right - It wouldn't make sense for us to actually realize we're in a recession and that perhaps we should feel the pain associated with it.

How would I stretch my free $? Maybe I'd live within my bounds.

Little to no incentive to find a job when on unemployment. How do I know? All my unemployed friends spending their unemployment checks on four loko's and jets tickets.

Ph

No, you're lying.

Stop that.

jibbly

Are you insane? It's just barely possible to afford rent, pay utilities, and afford groceries on the maxed out amount of unemployment benefits after taxes. If you're lucky, you'll have nice friends that take you out once in a while for a meal that isn't pasta or pb&j sandwiches or ramen noodles. You can't WAIT to get the fuck off of unemployment.

whoknewit

There's jobs available. You just don't want to take lower paying jobs because you would then have to lower your standard of living.

Hence our problem as a country, we refuse to lower our standard of living, even if it means paying out unemployment, and then extended unemployment. It'll bite us.

jibbly

Sorry pal you have no idea what you're talking about. I took a nasty 20% paycut to accept my current job and I know I'm only one of many that had to do exactly that after months and months of searching and interviewing.

If you're implying that college grads and professionals in the workforce for years, decades, suddenly go to their local McDonald's to flip burgers, you're oblivious to reality.

Num num num, troll treats are fun to eat.

whoknewit

A college education is the new HS Diploma.

ktinnyc

Yeah, these people netting $300 a week are probably too busy snorting coke and flying to Vegas to look for work!

whoknewit

I'd be mad too. I'd love to get paid for doing nothing, and then for the government to keep extending that.

If they're paying me to do nothing why should I get a job anyway!

Dead Himmler

Finding the right balance in order for everyone to create the society we all desire is very difficult. Talking in absolutes does not add any value to the national conversation of how to deal with the high unemployment rate.

JPeditor

"Finding the right balance in order for everyone to create the society we all desire is very difficult. "

TRANSLATION: "SHUT UP AMERICA, because we socialists (and the bankers who snowed us and bankrolled us) need more time to FUCK UP THE ECONOMY EVEN MORE."