[ad_1]
However, as my colleague Joan McCarter has pointed out, even with PUA and other emergency benefit programs established because of the economic impacts of the response to the pandemic, more than 1.2 million out-of-work Americans have received none of the benefits they applied for.
Much fault for that lies with Republicans, who, in the 86 years since the unemployment insurance program was launched—and in every recession since—have fought against these benefits fang and claw, ludicrously claiming that this money rewards sloth. McCarter writes:
The “fraud check” process is one of the key reasons 1.2 million people have been waiting 9 months for help. That and some states are still using systems built on COBOL, cutting edge coding back in the 1960s, to process claims. What those two things have in common is a long-lasting Republican effort, aided for too many years by weak-kneed Democrats, to destroy government. They have instilled the idea that working people have to prove their worthiness for assistance, operating under the presumption of unworthiness and knowing that by throwing up hurdle after hurdle for people to get assistance, they’ll just give up and suffer. To make it even worse, they’ve kept the unemployment system centered in states and provided little in the way of federal help for states to run them. Including refusing to allow $1 billion in funding in the latest coronavirus relief package—the House provided it, Mitch McConnell refused it.
The Pandemic Recession is unlike any in the past, with parts of the economy shut down intentionally to flatten the curve of coronavirus cases. While many white-collar workers have only had to deal with whatever it takes to set up a home office and have suffered no loss of income—indeed, have gained because their spending on commuting and other services has been curtailed—the negative impacts have fallen unequally on lower-earning workers at restaurants, hotels, warehouses, and delivery operations. Meanwhile, many low-paid “essential” workers must continue on the job despite the risk of infection, especially in communities where wearing a mask is viewed as tantamount to siding with an invading enemy.
“It’s been a very unequal pandemic economy,” said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James. “We had a lot of job losses in lower-paying service industries, but those workers aren’t typically big spenders.” He noted the top 20% of income earners account for more than half of consumer spending. And their spending on imported consumer products took the November trade deficit in goods to a record high.
As we have seen throughout the Pandemic Recession, African Americans, Latinos, women, and young people have been hit hardest. An EPI study found:
Across the United States, millions of workers of all ages suffered job losses in the coronavirus-driven recession, but the economic impact on young workers has been even more intense. Not only have many young people in this country faced the harsh reality of returning to school without in-person classes at their colleges and high schools, the job prospects for those seeking employment have been particularly bleak. Historically, young people are disproportionately disadvantaged in many ways during economic downturns, but this recession has been particularly acute given the sectors of the economy that were hit the hardest. Furthermore, many have been all but blocked from receiving jobless benefits even with meaningful expansions to the unemployment insurance system.
The intersection of gender and race among young people shows a similar pattern to the overall population. Although the highest rates of unemployment are among young people in general, Asian American/Pacific Islander men, Black men, and Latino women have been hit with the highest rates of unemployment among young people in the past several months.
Just as the pandemic has exposed the racist and other inequities of the health care system for those who hadn’t previously noticed, the Pandemic Recession has highlighted how longstanding economic inequities differentially affect people during crises. Most of these inequities are not new; they are chronic. The unemployment insurance system—with many understaffed offices using antiquated hardware and software—isn’t up to the task assigned to it. Even in “normal” times, it falls far short of what’s needed.
Whether the program should simply be upgraded and better funded or completely replaced—say, with a universal basic income—is a question for congressional debate. But the damage caused by the inadequacies of the current operation is too serious to allow the status quo to continue its reign.
[ad_2]
Source link
