Jobs Aren't Being Destroyed This Fast Elsewhere. Why Is That?

[BeckyDem]

It’s not too late to start protecting employment or to make medical care for Covid-19 free.

By Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman

The authors are economists at the University of California, Berkeley.

March 30, 2020
The coronavirus pandemic is laying bare structural deficiencies in America’s social programs. The relief package passed by Congress last week provides emergency fixes for some of these issues, but it also leaves critical problems untouched. To avoid a Great Depression, Congress must quickly design a more forceful response to the crisis.

Start with the labor market. In just one week, from March 15 to March 21, 3.3 million workers filed for unemployment insurance. According to some projections, the unemployment rate might rise as high as 30 percent in the second quarter of 2020.

This dramatic spike in jobless claims is an American peculiarity. In almost no other country are jobs being destroyed so fast. Why? Because throughout the world, governments are protecting employment. Workers keep their jobs, even in industries that are shut down. The government covers most of their wage through direct payments to employers. Wages are, in effect, socialized for the duration of the crisis.

Instead of safeguarding employment, America is relying on beefed-up unemployment benefits to shield laid-off workers from economic hardship. To give just one example, in both the United States and Britain, the government is asking restaurant workers to stay home. But in Britain, workers are receiving 80 percent of their pay (up to £2,500 a month, or $3,125) and are guaranteed to get their job back once the shutdown is over. In America, the workers are laid off; they must then file for unemployment insurance and wait for the economy to start up again before they can apply for a new job, and if all goes well, sign a new contract and resume working.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/30/opinion/coronavirus-economy-saez-zucman.html?referringSource=articleShare

[marble falls]

1. "Wealth conservation" vs 'we're all in this together'.

[BeckyDem]

4. You said it, yep.

[SWBTATTReg]

2. I suspect part of the reason too is that businesses are glad to shed workers here in America,

so the owners can get their welfare checks from the stimulus bills passed by Congress. It just another sign that businesses seem to have way too much of the upper hand in dealing w/ Congress, and where the rest of us lives on the scraps they toss our way. Jobs don't count for nothing. The stock market on the other hand (see how rump acts around the rising numbers all of the time) is a different story. Sadly, what these people don't realize is that people make up the numbers (do the actual selling/buying, etc.) and are important. Everything revolves around people.

[BeckyDem]

3. Great response, thank you.

[dalton99a]

15. +1

[Dustlawyer]

5. Couple that with the fact that the ones that had jobs with health insurance

must now pay COBRA premiums to keep the insurance or lose it altogether. How do you deal with losing health insurance due to a pandemic when you need it most!

[BeckyDem]

8. Add another reality :

Stretched Thin

The continuing government shutdown highlights the fact that most Americans have little to no savings.
By Susan Milligan Senior Politics Writer
Jan. 11, 2019, at 6:00 a.m.

https://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2019-01-11/stretched-thin-majority-of-americans-live-paycheck-to-paycheck

[Wellstone ruled]

6. We are a service economy

period.. All the new job creation since 08' has been a non essential created Job. When a Crisis hits,these people are expendable. Especially the new Gig jobs. Not many full time(32+) hourly jobs with lay off protections or Health Care Protections in that whole bunch of junk.

In 08' and after,we lost big time in Manufacturing jobs that were 40 hours with Benefits. This time we will loose more of our Manufacturing while everyone is watching the C-19 virus. N 95 production was scheduled to go to Mexico this Spring. The workers in Brookings are getting a reprieve because of a fluke of nature.

[Nay]

7. The 'structural deficiencies' are a feature, not a bug. The idea is to run everything so

that workers are worked to the bone, and every dime is wrung out of any and every person, child, thing, place, building, water feature, natural area, animal, bug, and bee.

Then our owners will pack up and move to New Zealand, which they have bought for themselves.

[Dan]

9. I keep coming back to Andrew Yang's book

"The War on Normal People". Workers are expendable. I suspect that a majority of workers are no longer needed - and worker-less innovations created during this virus will continue in the future.

Just listened to MSNBC as it relates to the DOJ desire to suspend a lot of the rights we take for granted - coupled with internment. If it passes, then we can look to Russia to know our future with fearless leader. If Trump is re-elected, I believe that we will no longer have a Republic. Hell, if Trump is given the opportunity, we may not have elections this fall.

I'm wondering if we are also beginning to see the possibility of Universal Basic Income as becoming more acceptable.

[BeckyDem]

10. Perhaps. But if the bill that was passed is any window into another Trump administration,

millions will suffer for a long time.

[Dan]

11. I'm sorry, but I had to laugh

As if Trump cares!!!

But I see your point.

[BeckyDem]

12. lol thats ok.

He cares for two groups, christian right and Wall Street. They like him just fine, the rest of us do not matter.

[la-trucker]

13. The media are partially at fault

They have been obsessed with reporting the present but media should be flooded with the truth about what people have to look forward to. They are keeping people in the dark and the anger will be astronomical when the reality hits in a couple of months.

[Kaiserguy]

14. The MSM have proven useless

when it comes to covering Trump. Sadly I don't see that changing any time soon.