The young and the unemployed

hmm... join cf? There are reservist regiments everywhere begging for members. Some might actually enjoy the experiance of getting out and firing a few rounds off at the range in the name of their country.

I know I loved it back in the day, but Reserve duty is only part-time and pays only $600 a month, plus you pretty much have to be able to go away your first summer. But we can't all be reservists.

We need a system that doesn't discourage youth from going to school. I don't see why you can't collect EI if you lose your job and chose to go back to school while student loans discriminate against workers who earned a decent paycheque and saved up a little.

I got screwed pretty good not too long ago, I was working 50 hrs/wk in the financial sector, while paying my own way through university part-time and managed to save up a few grand in the process. When I lost my job, I figured I would just go to school full-time and get it done with in a year. But EI said I have to be "available to work" any time any place any job so going to school, even in the evenings was a no-no. God forbid that some all-night diner needs a minimum wage burger flipper at 11 at night and I can't fill the job because of schooling that will lead me to a good career. I mean only a socialist state wouldn't force you into the shit-job labour force, right?

So I said fuck EI, I'll get student loans and part-time job but OSAP told me that based on the amount of money I had earned BEFORE losing my job, they estimated I should have saved up enough to cover most of my school costs and didn't evenb have a mechanism to recognize the fact that the reason I didn't have more savings was because I paid my own way through university for 2 years. By their ridiculously conservative assement, I qualified for a loan of $4k but since I already had $4k in savings they gave me zero.

So basically by working 50 hours a week and paying my own way through school and saving money responsibly I was punished and worse off than I would have been if I had just been some unemployed slob who lived at home and never worked. The so'called "welfare state" is really a system that conspires to keep people in low-income workforce as long as possible rather than give them the leg-up they need.

OSAP doesn't do a damn thing for most post secondary students in Ontario.

When I went to school I thought it was a frackin' joke.

Damn, 20 bucks a day for reserve pay? I think it is a bit higher then that. Guys out here in Pet that were on course were making anywhere between 2000 and 4000 by the end of the summer. Add to that a day a weekend and the students are getting an extra 300+ a month. Don't even have to show up for whole days. just check in for 10 minutes in the morning and you automatically qualify for a half a day's pay. Do that twice in a weekend and you are good to go. Go work at Mc-shitters after that.