On Salmon's blog, even the comments are quotable

Felix Salmon has a good post on the economic impact of extending unemployment benefits but for me the most insightful observation was found in the comments:

What’s missing from this discussion is the part about optimization of deployment of resources. If a skilled worker, say a skilled aluminum welder, can stay on unemployment long enough to find a skilled aluminum welder job at higher pay and productivity, that’s good for GDP and has a higher multiplier. But if that worker has to settle for a security guard job because he or she must pay the rent, then there is a net loss of productivity, GDP, and related multipliers.