Not Even Unemployment Is Safe From Privatizing

Apparently not having a job is not motivation enough to find a job, and the answer is private bank accounts.

Congressional Quarterly's David Nather might be on to something in his analysis of John McCain's economics speech on Thursday. Apparently, Republicans aren't just interested in private health savings accounts that won't work; their nominee is very interested in having unemployment savings accounts that won't work, too:

In a largely overlooked section of his speech on the economy Thursday , McCain suggested diverting some unemployment insurance taxes into "Lost Earnings Buffer" accounts, which workers would get to keep after retirement if they haven't spent the money by then. The idea, he said, is to give unemployed workers an incentive to find jobs quickly.

Have you ever known someone unceremoniously dumped from the workforce, with a mortgage and a family, that spends a lot of time out of work because it is particularly fun or preferable to having income? Yeah, me neither.