Canadian Politics Today

I would say there could be a limited amount of time for the machinist to refuse jobs not in his field while not on EI.  2 or 3 months, or whenever the EI claim runs out?  I dunno.  After that limited period is over the machinist should then be expected to accept whatever jobs are available.  If the machinist were to stay on government income indefinitely that would mean many of the people who used to make good money working in manufacturing would now be stuck on government benefits.  This is terrible for the economy, both GDP and tax revenue/spending, and bad psychologically for the unemployed.

Think of it this way: Government always has only a certain amount of money budgeted to spend on social programs.  It would be far better to spend that money on the people who really need it, such as the homeless, poor communities/first nations, the sick etc than to give it to healthy people able to work but refuse.
As I said, if a person is healthy but unwilling to work when there are jobs available they should not expect an income from the government after transition benefits like EI run out.  The mentally ill brother is a different case, if they're disabled to the point where they can't work they should be entitled to disability income.

Those are 2 very different jobs.  Entitlement to government benefits should be determined by government.

All of which is true enough Gorgeous, but I think you're taking on an attitude of attempting to win a debate, as opposed to thinking it all through completely. That's the reason why you're hanging on the specifics rather than accept the bigger picture.

So the big picture is:

There aren't enough jobs to go around anymore.
and
Speaking of the US where the situation has advanced further along, there is enough money to make unemployment work if the very wealthy are taxed out of a portion of their billions. Or more appropriately, the very wealthy are restricted enough on their profit making that they never do get to owning billions.

So there we have it for the reality of the 21st. century, and it's coming soon. How soon? Well, it's already here in a smaller way.

And fwiw, the machinist is going to say fk them, I'm not going to dig a ditch. Then vote for the party that says he doesn't have to.

Can a country work within the capitalist system in which the wealth is spread around and restraints can be placed on one's ability to earn billions? Say, in the US where 3 top billionaires earn as much as 50% of the country's people? How Conservative would one have to be to accept that??