Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by chmod600 1805 days ago
Did they really pay for it, though?

It seems like the people that have the highest risk of unemployment payouts pay the least (in taxes or premiums), which is not how insurance works.

2 comments

They also receive the least benefits.

But I think it's reasonable to assume (though I'd be interested in a study on this), that over a lifetime a person will have paid for all of its unemployment benefits.

You can't be on unemployment forever, and you can't just go on it year over year, because there is a minimum amount of wage/work-hour you'll need to meet to be able to go back on unemployment if you're laid off again and have expired your allocated benefits (as I understand).

That means that any worker going on unemployment can only get so much benefits per amount of time working or wages accrued.

That's why I think over a lifetime, most people pay-back all of their benefits.

The difference in risk profile from other types of insurance doesn't necessarily mean it's not insurance.
The parent wants it both ways: the connotation of entitlement in collecting a product that was paid for (by calling it "insurance"), but without actually paying for it.