Jack Rose was a part-time musician working different day jobs to stay afloat. In 2001, during an extended period of collecting unemployment checks, he sold his electric guitar and used the free time his unemployment income provided him to master the finger pick style of acoustic guitar. The time was well spent, and he was able to become a full-time musician and spread the blues, ragtime, and Americana sounds that influenced him. Unfortunately, Jack passed away in February just before his highly anticipated record was to be released on a prominent independent label.

But Jack is a good example of what you can do with yourself when you’re collecting unemployment checks; that is, invest in a skill with which you can make a living. It’s the best thing for society and yourself. Obviously, not everyone (almost nobody, in fact) should spend their unemployment time learning finger pick guitar. But there are the free online courses offered by MIT and hundreds of other places to educate yourself online. It is a great age to be an autodidact. There are also plenty of grants and free programs for continuing education that will pay for classes at community college.

What you shouldn’t do is sit around lamenting that the government won’t give you something to do. If collecting unemployment makes you feel like you need to contribute something society the best contribution you can make is to do whatever you can to make it less likely that you will need to rely on unemployment in the future.

I’m not judging people for being unemployed; many of them did all the right things you’re supposed to do to make yourself employable, and are unemployed at no fault of their own. But there are almost always ways to increase you’re human capital and learn valuable new skills. And even if you are perfectly trained for future employment, and you just need to wait for a cyclical bounceback in the economy, there are other ways to contribute to society.  Volunteer at a charity, babysit your neighbors kids, help people fill job applications, improve their resumes, or do their own job training. Just don’t sit around complaining that the government isn’t giving you a ditch to dig.