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Monday, February 2, 2009

Economy Notes from the Unemployment Line

Posted by Eli Sanders on Mon, Feb 2, 2009 at 1:30 PM

I'm still going through all the e-mails from unemployed people who want to be part of this Jobless in Seattle project. (If you're jobless and interested, click here.) But for now, a note that doesn't quite work for the project because it sounds like it already has a somewhat happy ending:

I moved to Seattle from Minneapolis a little more than two years ago to be near a lovely Oregon transplant from Ballard, who is now my wife. I worked as a contract paralegal for Microsoft, then found a good job at a large downtown law firm. Contract, of course. I was laid off in September. My wife was laid off from her job writing copy for a local on line retailer in November.

By a stroke of good fortune (and better connections), about a week before I was laid off, a friend in California offered my wife and me some work harvesting and trimming a crop of outdoor marijuana. We called him to see if the offer stood. It did, and we spent some time in the hills of California trimming weed, making better money than I did working for lawyers.

Since then, I've trimmed in Oregon, collected some unemployment, and half-heartedly looked for a job. My wife is tutoring once a week, with a few hours of copy editing coming in here and there. In March, we plan to trim again in Oregon. In April or May, I hope there's a few weeks of work in California planting the next crop. Come fall, I'll be back down there trimming if there's a crop to trim.

Marijuana. The gateway to gainful employment drug.

Comments (16) RSS

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Ok everyone. In these tough economic times we need to all pull together to get the nation out of this crisis. Let's smoke our way to full employment. Think of all the people we could employ.

Posted by Colin on February 2, 2009 at 1:38 PM

Yeah, the only downside is that, even though this income is derived from what is considered a criminal activity (I'm only making an observation, as my thoughts on this issue should already be fairly well known to regular SLOGers), it's still liable for Federal & state income taxes. In other words, the IRS still expects people to report this type of income - which seems pretty screwy, but there you have it.

I presume they're being paid cash-on-the-barrel-head, and that there are no records being kept of these transactions. However, that wouldn't preclude them owing income, and even possibly Social Security taxes on whatever they've made, assuming of course the IRS or state tax authorities ever caught wind of it, which could happen if, for example, the couple was ever randomly audited.

Posted by COMTE on February 2, 2009 at 1:45 PM

Comte - I'm just curious, since I've never been audited... how would an auditor know that they had made unreported income? Do they look at your bank statements and see what was deposited? If they didn't deposit the money, how would the IRS know that it had been made?

I'm not planning on any tax fraud or anything, I just wonder how that sort of thing could be discovered.

Posted by Julie in Eugene on February 2, 2009 at 1:49 PM

Eli, do you have contact info for the author of that note? Because I think I can help the author and his wife find someplace to go...

Posted by Special Agent Arnold R. Moorin on February 2, 2009 at 1:52 PM

Seriously, legalizing pot is one of the best things they could do for the economy, just as lifting prohibition was good for it during the recovery from the depression. Take all that cash that is heading into the underground economy and bring it into the mainstream one, and give Americans a home grown product that they are willing to buy. Win win win.

Posted by kinaidos on February 2, 2009 at 2:29 PM

California would have a massive budget surplus overnight if pot were legalized.

Posted by DOUG. on February 2, 2009 at 2:39 PM

Just curious what the legal ramification of a job like this would be. Say you're on the farm when it gets raided. What kind of jail time are you looking at?

Posted by john on February 2, 2009 at 2:41 PM

@3 - Not sure about in the States, but up in Canada, they do things like asking where the money for your mortgage payments is coming from, seeing as how you're unemployed. There are some things that have to be run through the banks.

Posted by wench on February 2, 2009 at 3:07 PM

Fine, just as long as those pot farms aren't on public land, or reserves. Pot growers who sneak into state parks etc and clear native vegetation for their crop aren't so cool.

Posted by onion on February 2, 2009 at 3:15 PM

Owed taxes aside, I'm going to be laughing my ass off when this couple can't work anymore, need Social Security to get them through to their death beds, and find nothing in the coffer because they stopped putting anything in.

Posted by EmilyP on February 2, 2009 at 3:41 PM

Legalizing pot would no only help our economy, it could get us out of our biggest (current) foreign policy mess too: Afganistan.

Over 50% of Afganistan's land and most of its GDP comes from poppy production; the land is suited for little else -- other than weed!

If they had a legitimate & leagl market for weed in America they could transition from the warlord-run black-market poppy/opium/herion production to legitimate, government regulated (and taxed!) export of Grade A-1 Afgani Kush, providing them a cash crop of similar value but without the underground extortion of the warloards and terrorists.

(Instead they'd be extorted above-ground and by the banks & futures markets, just like corn, rice & soy growers all over the world!)

Posted by Timrr on February 2, 2009 at 3:49 PM

Just think of how this would help our balance of trade, if we stopped being the primary market for MJ from Canada and Mexico ... and grew it here.

Posted by Will in Seattle on February 2, 2009 at 3:57 PM

@3:

@8 cites one specific example that might get them in trouble in an audit situation. Basically it boils down to income versus expenses: if you don't have enough income on the books to cover what you're spending, then clearly something is amiss, and the IRS could be compelled to start looking into other aspects of your public record, say phone billing statements, travel records (DHS would most likely have records of passenger manifests for air travel) in an attempt to piece together how you would be able to pay for things without the benefit of savings, investments, or other assets that could be liquidated.

If they can assemble enough evidence to determine someone has failed to declare income, that person could be charged with tax evasion, and end up either going to jail, or paying huge penalties - or both. This might be sufficient to leverage a plea-bargained confession, and next thing you know - there goes next year's crop.

Posted by COMTE on February 2, 2009 at 5:01 PM

@11 - Well said, and a dream situation. However, it would mean busting up and dismantling the corrupt military industrial complex and the all the dirty money that flows between their heroin and arms dealings. It's a big beast to battle.

Posted by Damien on February 2, 2009 at 5:22 PM

"Well said, and a dream situation. However, it would mean busting up and dismantling the corrupt military industrial complex and the all the dirty money that flows between their heroin and arms dealings. It's a big beast to battle."

Yep, it would also fuck up the status quo enjoyed by all GOP congressmen and most Democrats as well.

Posted by ain' never gonna happen on February 2, 2009 at 7:33 PM

i dont care about weed. i just want a job. im at the point that i can visualize myself in two situations if i grew weed and was being arrested for it,
one
in which i am berated as a criminal by some psychopath that is on a power trip,
or two
by some guy who says hey man im sorry your going to jail because you broke the law and ive got to do my job so i can pay my mortgage.
in the second i can envision myself being comforted. or jealous that my fantasy hero/villain has a mortgage and doesnt pay rent.

Posted by too poor to take bong hits. on February 2, 2009 at 7:56 PM