The moral hazard of government benefits has long been known to economists. The hazard is that, in attempting to lift the burdens of poverty and hardship, the government can often do the opposite, in essence feeding a dependence on government handouts. That question has arisen again with the Department of Labor’s release of April’s jobs availability report. It shows that a record 9.3 million jobs are unfilled.
As Doug McKelway reports, critics fear the Biden administration’s policy of continuing pandemic-related federal unemployment payouts is leading people to choose unemployment over work.
