Coronavirus and Unemployment
One of the most frustrating narratives about how the US government is responding to the pandemic compared to how other governments have responded is when people say, “The government thinks $1200 is enough for people to live on.” It’s disingenuous to say that because that was just one piece of relief. On top of that, the government has increased unemployment funds to help workers who lost their jobs. And that aid is higher than almost every other country.
In fact, it’s so high that it’s creating problems. Think through the economics of the situation. The government added $600 per week to unemployment benefits—that’s $600 on top of whatever other unemployment benefits you get. If you work a decent job for 40 hours a week at $15/hr, your take home pay would still be less than $600 because of taxes. People making $15/hr could make more staying home than they could at work.
And indeed, we are getting reports that economics was right. NPR wrote about a coffee shop that couldn’t keep its employees because it couldn’t compete with unemployment benefits. There’s a mill in Arkansas that polled its workers about whether they wanted to work or get unemployment, and they voted for going home.
I don’t want to paint this as a terrible situation. Getting more people to stay home is good for stopping the spread of the pandemic. And it’s good that the burden of staying home is being lightened. But we should recognize that (1) relief aid good enough that people are choosing to stay home and (2) unemployment is higher than it would be without the aid.
It’s Time to Build Subreddit
Last week I mentioned It’s Time to Build, an inspiring essay encouraging us to solve our problems by building new things. To rally more people to the cause, I’ve started a subreddit where we can discuss the principles and examples of building. That’s also where I’ll be hosting the book club.
Looking for Flag Pole
I have a 20’ x 30’ flag that I need to display for a video, and I’m looking for a flag. According to guidelines, it should be at least 80’ tall. I have no idea where to find one like that, but I thought I’d ask if anyone had connections.
New Video Series
Over the summer, I’ll be doing more videos explaining research papers, mostly from developing countries. This is an experiment I’m trying in preparation for my ECN 3600 class in the Fall. This first one uses research from Burkina Faso to look at how households make decisions.