And just TRY to allowing the government to force unemployed people to show up to government work camps to collect their dole. OMG the "progressives" would shit their pants.
Which is unfortunate because I've long thought the Civilian Conservation Corps is an excellent model for unemployment benefits for the able-bodied. Interestingly there are a handful of similar state-run programs in California and Washington but these are generally limited to the 18-25 age-group. I think with a certain amount of "leave days" for job fairs and the like it would be an excellent program for Congress to resurrect. However I can see someone screaming about exploitation of minorities as they have a disproportionately high unemployment rate nationwide (12.6% unemployment as opposed to the 5.7% national average).
I did not oppose a Federal gay marriage law out of hate for gays. I opposed it because marriage is none of the Federal government's f*ing business.
This is an instance where it has to be because of the full faith and credit clause of the US Constitution: "Full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state. And the Congress may by general laws prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof (Article IV, Section 1)." If it's allowed in one state another state must recognize it by constitutional law (note that this doesn't apply to state-specific certifications for things like teaching, civil engineering and so forth). One of the more puzzling aspects of the Defense of Marriage Act was, to me, why the Supreme Court ruled in the act unconstitutional based on Section Three, not Section Two which blatantly contradicts the full faith and credit clause.
My thing is, why do we complain at all about who makes how much?
In some (not all mind you) cases it's because a person struggles to make ends meet working 80 hours a week and sees other people who work 40 hours a week taking home three times his/her pay and wonders why he or she isn't getting the same breaks.
Now, we can unpack that last sentence until Hell freezes over but at the end of the day most of us in the US are tied to this idea that life ought to be fair (or at least unfair in our favor, to quote Bill Waterson).
Personally I don't object to bankers making a great deal of money. Unless of course they were those bankers who managed to crash the national economy and put a decent-sized dent in the global economy and not serve any jail time because the Justice Department decided these pricks were too valuable to prosecute.
I've noticed several design suggestions in your code.