Unemployment insurance in USA

Unemployment insurance in USA is managed by the states through the state trust funds. Here is a glimpse of what is happening.

..... spending on unemployment benefits fell by 24%, as fewer claims were filed and a temporary $25 weekly increase in benefits expired.
At the same time, businesses paid $12 billion more in unemployment insurance taxes in 2011. Many states have raised unemployment taxes on companies to replenish their depleted UI trust funds.

My view: An alternative to unemployment insurance is for the state to offer a low cost interest loan to unemployed people. They have to pay back the loan, but it will be at a low interest rate (and not the high rate of interest charged by the banks). Some of the loans will have to be written off, but a large part can be recovered from the lenders when they find their jobs in an economic recovery, or when they sell off their house in the future.

Beware of a new type of motor insurance scam

Here is a new type of motor insurance scams that target motorists - and not the insurance companies.

Mr X's car was hit by a van. He reported to an reporting centre. An agent of the workshop approached him and told him that the workshop can handle his third party claim - so that he does not need to lose his No Claim Bonus. Mr. X agreed and sign a few forms given by the workshop.

Six months later, the workshop told him that they could not proceed with the third party claim as the other party had a witness that Mr. X had turned into is lane. The workshop asked Mr. X to pay for the repairs at about twice of the estimated cost. If Mr. X did not pay, the workshop would get a lawyer to sue him. It seemed that the forms signed by Mr. X gave this legal right to the workshop.

Mr. X approached his insurance company to handle the claim, but the insurance company refused - as Mr. X did not meet the policy condition of getting his own insurance company to handle the repair in the first place.

Mr. X is now in a dilemma - having to pay for a claim that should be covered by the insurance policy and now having to pay for twice of the actual cost. Mr. X suspected that the workshop was acting fraudulently and was targeting him in the first place.

Lesson - always leave it to your insurance company to handle the repairs. Do not try to save on your No Claim Discount. It is not worth the unexpected trouble.

Unstable employment and fall in fertility

Lucky Tan wrote this article about the impact of unstable employment on the fertility rate. When people are unsure about their employment, they are reluctant to get married and start a family. In my view, the situation is worse in Singapore than in other countries, so we have one of the lowest birth rate in the world. This is a key reason why the measures taken by the Government to boost the birth rate during the past 25 years have failed to produce the desired results - as they do not address the underlying causes - the unstable employment and increasing cost of living. 

Affordability of housing

IMF figures show that a 70 square meter home in Beijing costs about 20 times the average annual household disposable income, quadruple the national ratio and almost seven times higher than in the United States. Definition: Disposable income is total personal income minus personal current taxes.  

Word Power Vol 1

This is the soft copy of the book. It gives exercises to allow you to improve your vocabulary. It contains 80 puzzles of 20 words each. You can record the time taken to solve each puzzle and the number of correct words.    By carrying out the fun exercises regularly, you can learn more words.