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Of course they did!! Did you not see my post in the other thread. The choice of response to the pandemic demanded economic relief, and that economic relief was a redistribution of wealth from the wealthy and middle class to the poor. The poor immediately, of their own free will, quite stupidly and gleefully handed this right back to the wealthy.
It amounted to a yo-yo upward redistribution of wealth. That's all the government is good for. Tax more, or God help you, pass catastrophicsocialist "progressive" policies like UBI, which is effectively what this has been a test run for, and you'll simply exacerbate this effect in perpetuity.
Many Americans Are Getting More Money From Unemployment Than They Were From Their Jobs
Americans use their $1,200 stimulus checks to splurge at Walmart, Target and Best Buy — here’s what they’re buying
SMH.
It amounted to a yo-yo upward redistribution of wealth. That's all the government is good for. Tax more, or God help you, pass catastrophic
Many Americans Are Getting More Money From Unemployment Than They Were From Their Jobs
The United States is not known for its generosity to the unemployed. But the coronavirus crisis has transformed our system for compensating jobless workers. As tens of millions of workers suddenly became unemployed, Congress passed an expansive relief package with an unprecedented $600-per-week supplement for jobless workers. The goal was to replace their wages so they could survive the economic lockdown.
As a result, though, many people may now be eligible for substantially more money while unemployed than they made while they were working. A new analysis by Peter Ganong, Pascal Noel and Joseph Vavra, economists at the University of Chicago, uses government data from 2019 to estimate that 68 percent of unemployed workers who can receive benefits are eligible for payments that are greater than their lost earnings. They also found that the estimated median replacement rate — the share of a worker’s original weekly salary that is being replaced by unemployment benefits — is 134 percent, or more than one-third above their original wage. A substantial minority of those workers, particularly in low-wage professions like food service and janitorial work, may end up receiving more than 150 percent of their previous weekly salary.
The research underscores one of the central — and most politically explosive — tensions of our economic crisis: What’s the best way for our battered unemployment insurance system to keep jobless workers afloat during a historic downturn with no end in sight?
The idea behind a $600 payment was simple: In 2019, the national average unemployment payment was $370 per week and the national average salary for unemployment recipients was $970 per week.3 The additional $600 per week is meant to make up the difference, providing enough money on a weekly basis to fully replace the average unemployment recipient’s salary. Other analyses of estimated average wages and unemployment benefits have already shown, though, that replacement rates likely vary quite a bit by state.
But looking at average wages doesn’t tell the whole story, because the country’s significant income inequality means that more workers fall into lower-wage categories. To address that problem, the new analysis simulates benefits for the median — rather than the mean — unemployment-eligible worker, drawing on Census Bureau labor supply data.
The analysis illustrates how something that seems like a simple proposition — replacing jobless workers’ salaries while a public health threat persists — is not something our unemployment insurance system was built to do quickly or easily. Most of the experts I spoke with agreed that back in March, when the unemployment insurance expansion passed, a flat payment was the most feasible solution. Unemployment benefits are always inconsistent across states, though, since each state sets its own rates. And now, those inequalities are even more pronounced. The median unemployment-eligible worker in Massachusetts is eligible for an estimated 125 percent of her former salary, compared to 166 percent in Mississippi.
The researchers uncovered other kinds of inequality, too. In some professions, like janitorial work, people who are employed by essential businesses are continuing to show up to their jobs under hazardous conditions. But in doing so, they may be eligible for less money than janitors who have been laid off or furloughed by a nonessential business. In an ideal world, Ganong said, the people who have kept working at hospitals or grocery stores would be receiving some kind of hazard pay. “But that’s generally not the reality, which means there’s a weakness in the current system,” he said. “We’re giving more money to certain workers to stay home than to other workers who are putting themselves at risk by going to work.”
Several economists and unemployment insurance experts reviewed a draft of the analysis at FiveThirtyEight’s request. Many were surprised by the number of workers estimated to be eligible for unemployment benefits that exceeded their original wages...
Americans use their $1,200 stimulus checks to splurge at Walmart, Target and Best Buy — here’s what they’re buying
The poor stay poor, and yet they blame it on taxes & corporations.Marketwatch said:
SMH.
