Please read the article attached below titled “The Wages of Unemployment”. The author, Dr. Richard Vedder, indicated that in recent decades there was a steady rise in the employment-to-population ratio. However he also indicated that in the years since 2000 and until the date of the article, more than two-thirds of that increase in working-age population employed had been erased.

Dr. Vedder stated as follows: “while there are a number of factors, the phenomenon is due mainly to a variety of public policies that have reduced the incentives to be employed”. Dr. Vedder identified 4 policies: (1) Food stamps, (2) Social Security disability payments, (3) Pell grants, (4) Extended unemployment benefits. He discussed each individually and provided his point of view.

Please note that very much has been published since Dr. Vedder’s articled first appeared and the employment situation is profoundly different now. However, due to Covid-19, the number of unemployed and on temporary layoff increased dramatically. As we progressed into the pandemic, the ideas and opinions that were then presented by Dr. Vedder started reemerging, especially in regards to unemployment benefits and their extended duration. I hope that, should you find yourselves engaged in any of these or similar conversations, you will have the ability to formulate and defend your opinion.

Therefore I am assigning you the following task.

Please choose one of the above 4 policies [(1) Food stamps, (2) Social Security disability payments, (3) Pell grants, (4) Extended unemployment benefits], discuss it and indicate whether you agree or disagree with Dr. Vedder’s opinion.

I expect you to write your post not just looking into the past and the previous economic downturns, but rather with a  look into what happened since the date of Dr. Vedder’s article, what is happening these days and the mitigating role of social welfare.  Please research the topic and then form your own opinion. Please remember, I do not grade your opinion but your ability to express it clearly and substantiate it based on your research and readings.

REPLY TO 

Please find the student’s past for Part 2 of the assignment below (Submit one informative post in reply to another student’s post). Expected length same as Part 1.

Unemployment Benefits Discussion

While I agree with Dr. Vedder about extended unemployment benefits giving a lot of people incentives to not seek employment. Some people even abuse these benefits to continue to stay unemployed. I believe the abusers of the systems are to be a minority and we need to look at the everyday average person that ends up using these benefits. There are inherently deeper reasons why someone would end up on unemployment benefits.

Some people don’t want to slave away at the minimum wage jobs that don’t even provide enough to sustain their families. Nowadays minimum wage is not the livable wage it once was supposed to be. [1] A person working full-time with a federal minimum wage of $7.25 will only earn $15,000 in a year, which puts them $12,000 below the poverty line for a family of four. Even if we recalculate this using the minimum wage of $15 we will get only around $30,000 in a year. [2] This would be only a third of the amount needed to sustain a family of four. These numbers represent a perfect scenario of full-time work, while many don’t have that luxury. Many companies will not offer full-time minimum wage positions, as well as no consistent schedules. Minimum wage employees are also extremely vulnerable and they are seen as expendable. We witnessed this during the current pandemic. As retailers closed down, many minimum wage workers were let go, but upon reopening business cut their staffing by more than half. In turn, they utilize unemployment benefits, especially during Covid 19 pandemic.

Many pre-pandemic jobs are yet to return. [3] A lot of low-wage jobs were consisting of leisure and hospitality where most of the face-to-face interaction was happening. We saw huge cuts in staffing in those areas, and they are yet to return. It is estimated that we are still missing 2 million jobs in the leisure and hospitality area. Followed by over a million in education and health services. We need more jobs, but they need to be good jobs. We need jobs where employees are respected and have good working environments. Over the past year, I saw the rise of the “Antiwork” movement on the internet. People shared numerous stories of mistreatment by management and customers, awful working conditions, and huge work expectations from low-wage workers. People are tired and don’t want to work in these types of environments anymore.

Even if people decide to quit their jobs, doesn’t necessarily mean they will get unemployment benefits. There are criteria people have to meet to collect paychecks. [4] If you voluntarily quit your job, there is no ground for you to collect unemployment. You will have to be fired or there will need to be a risk for your health as the reason for leaving your job.

We can’t blame unemployment benefits as a major incentive for people to not participate in the workforce. There is going to need to be a change in the way businesses approach low-wage work to attract the workforce back.

[1] Can a Family Survive on the US Minimum Wage?

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/022615/can-family-survive-us-minimum-wage.asp

[2] Many Americans, especially families, can’t live on a $15 minimum wage

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/21/15-minimum-wage-wont-cover-living-costs-for-many-americans.html

[3] The pandemic hurt low-wage workers the most—and so far, the recovery has helped them the least

https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-pandemic-hurt-low-wage-workers-the-most-and-so-far-the-recovery-has-helped-them-the-least/

[4] Quit a job? You likely can’t collect unemployment benefits

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/12/great-resignation-unemployment-benefits-arent-available-if-you-quit.html