On the politics of unemployment insurance

In today's press there are a couple interesting stories about the debate in Congress over unemployment insurance (UI): cutting benefits, drug testing, limiting UI to high school graduates, diverting UI funds to politicians' pet projects. A new frontier for neoliberalism.

In today's San Francisco Chronicle, business columnist Kathleen Pender gives a good brief summary: "Deadline for federal jobless benefits looms" while Colorlines focuses on the racially coded demonization of UI recipients at "House GOP’s Jobless Image: Drugged Out, Lazy and in Need of a GED".

Caste? In the US? Caste and Unemployment

Look at unemployment and racial caste in Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow, the sections "Boxed In" and "The Black Box", pages 145-150 (1st ed.) You can find this on the Scribd web site at www.scribd.com/doc/64858828/The-New-Jim-Crow-Michelle-Alexander; search for "Boxed In".