Problem Solved? Florida Agency Spends $14,000 For Superhero Capes For the Unemployed

There is a bizarre story out of Florida where officials at an unemployment agency reportedly spent $14,000 to give 6,000 superhero capes to the unemployed. It was part of its “Cape-A-Bility Challenge” featuring a cartoon character, “Dr. Evil Unemployment.”

Workforce Central Florida Director Gary J. Earl, however, insisted that the program was a success in connecting with the community. I am not sure that the unemployed really want to “connect” with the agency. They just want jobs and they already are pretty opposed to unemployment. No need to create “Dr. Evil Unemployment.” Unemployment is pretty clearly bad to everyone. It is not like there were people on the fence between whether to view unemployment as a superhero or a villain.

Wouldn’t the cash have been more useful for the jobless? Superhero jobs are notoriously difficult to get and to keep. Besides with health care costs of superheroing (in addition to the costs of a reliable sidekick) are prohibitively expensive. More importantly, cheaper superheros have been coming into the country from Asia and Latin America and other areas — as shown by the Turkish and Indian imports below:

Source: Yahoo