| It depends a lot on the country you're in. In Switzerland, the last time I was unemployed, I got about 80% of my salary, and they would have paid it for two years. You have to 'prove' you are looking for a job, but not getting hired when you have interviews is probably not that difficult. Someone showed me applications from people who obviously didn't want to get hired, they were very colourful and with lots of drawings. In Belgium I heard you don't even have to prove you're looking, and there's no time limit for staying unemployed. In France there is the rmi, revenu minimum d'insertion, that gives you money, apparently not even expecting you to find a job. That policy is not as stupid as it sounds, there are serious economists defending it, they call it the negative income tax. It's really not very much money, but I've met plenty of people living from it. The people who do this are usually not very proud of it and get out of it when they can. All those systems are being slowly scrapped or made less attractive everywhere. They are leftovers from better times. |