When any member of Congress or talking head goes on TV to say that “no one wants to see this drag out” or that “everyone wants the economy to reopen as quickly as possible,” make sure to look up whether that person supports extending another $600 per week in welfare for minimum wage and part-time workers.
If they are, then they’re lying. They’re perfectly at ease with having this drag out.
The $2 trillion relief bill that President Trump signed into law last month provided billions of dollars in emergency unemployment benefits to the millions of people thrown out of their jobs as a consequence of mandatory business shutdowns to stop the spread of the coronavirus. That made sense at the time, and it was probably to add more money on top of what people could get, given that the average weekly unemployment payment, at less than $400, wouldn’t be enough to make ends meet for many people forced to give up their job.
But that was all for the purpose of ensuring that people could pay their bills and rent while out of work and so that they could stay home, hopefully allowing healthcare providers and government officials to grapple with a spike in coronavirus-stricken patients. We’ve accomplished those goals.
Now, though, we’ve run into the problem where those benefits are a better deal than what about half of the recipients were making while working, according to the Wall Street Journal.
“Qualified workers will receive the government payout every week through July, and in most cases, the combined $978 weekly payout amounts to better pay than what many workers received before the crisis hit,” the Journal reported on Tuesday. “Labor Department statistics show half of full-time workers earned $957 or less a week in the first quarter of 2020.”
In other words, millions of people are going to make more money through the summer by not working than if they were to return to their actual jobs — in which case, the only rational choice is to not work. That’s more than 12 million people right now, and the number will certainly go up as more people file for unemployment.
The effect is that now, as states begin modest efforts encouraging businesses to start moving, would-be workers have every reason not to go back.
Texas woman Tracy Jackson, who worked in a college cafeteria, is making double on unemployment right now than what she would at her normal job. “I like the college, I really do,” she told the Wall Street Journal. “But they’re going to have to come with more money. If they don’t, I’m not going to be there.”
Jackie Victor, the owner of a bakery in Detroit, has run into the unenviable position of trying to reopen when her workers don’t want to come back, as they don’t necessarily need to.
“Many employees are wary of leaving their homes,” Victor said Tuesday in the New York Times. “Others, reliant on a limited and unsafe public transportation system, find themselves without a safe and reliable way to get to work. Still, others are forced to stay home because they are sick, caring for a parent or child — or they just don’t trust that coming to work will be safe, despite our business following the Centers for Disease and Prevention guidelines and having access to testing.”
Members of Congress are now going to begin negotiating the next relief bill, and this is going to be a major sticking point. Democrats are going to want to extend the $600 weekly bonus, and a lot of Republicans will object, as they should.
We can’t possibly sustain this. People will have to be forced off of this new form of welfare and made to return to work, or, at minimum, made to cope with a lot less money than the first relief bill provided.
That’s the only way forward without turning the country into a permanent welfare state.
