(08-07-2020 05:54 AM)RiceLad15 Wrote: I’ll note two thoughts: 1) perhaps this is a sign that many jobs are barely providing a living wage?
Many jobs aren't worth "a living wage." If employers have to start paying $15/hour for someone whose productivity is worth only $5-10/hour, what do you expect them to do?
1) eliminate the position and save money, or
2) automate the function and get the work done for less, or
3) raise prices, or
4) eat the loss.
Hint: They're not doing 4). If they were forced to do so, then many businesses close down. If they do 3) then after inflation works its way through the system, the $15/hour is now worth what $7.50/hour used to be. If they do 1) or 2), now you have made the employee, which you were trying to help, worse off.
The left needs to learn to look at economic issues from both the employee and employer perspectives. It's easy to say, "Oh the employer can just pay a higher wage, and provide more benefits, and yadda, yada, yada," but the employer does not have unlimited means, and when putting bread on the employee's table means taking it off the employer's, that's not happening.
If we had the prebate/prefund that I have proposed, then the current minimum wage would be a "living wage" when added to the prebate/prefund. And I think that is an appropriate way to handle it if society believes that everyone should get a "living wage"--employers pat workers what their work is worth, and taxpayers augment it up to that "living wage."
Quote:2) while the pandemic is still going strong, and the virus is actively spreading, is it a bad policy to provide economic support for people that would allow them to reduce the amount of exposure they have with others?
Depends. If they are at high risk, their exposure to anyone should probably be reduced or eliminated. But at some point you have to look at the tradeoff between the virus and lost economic activity. At 150,000 dead versus 20 million jobs lost, I'm not sure where the most damage lies. I'm not minimizing death, just saying that it's not a slam dunk.
If we had the things that I have proposed, the prebate/prefund would have been sending everyone checks (or, more properly, electronic deposits) every month--not $600/week, but more than zero--and
kurzarbeit would have provided a way for employers to keep more people working. It would not have solved the problem, but it would have made it less severe.