Three Washington Post headlines paint a portrait of America’s failed pandemic relief efforts:
Countries that reopened are closing down again amid spike in infections
More than 100,000 small businesses have closed forever as the U.S. pandemic toll escalates
Mass unemployment is a policy choice. We must choose differently.
Unprecedented support for businesses has been matched by meager support for workers. Our idea of helping workers in the COVID-19 pandemic is a paltry $1,200 and sending them back to work in conditions that might end their lives.
House Democrats Pramila Jayapal (Wash.), Haley Stevens (Mich.), Adam B. Schiff (Calif.) and Sean Casten (Ill) admit (last headline) that the three relief packages passed so far do not meet the scale of human needs. Implementation of the Paycheck Protection Program was haphazard, and large businesses swooped in (with the aid of their banks) to scoop up capital, leaving smaller and minority-owned businesses empty-handed when the money ran out.
“Many businesses will have to choose between shuttering permanently and ignoring public health guidance by reopening before it is safe,” they write. “Neither is acceptable.”
Instead, they propose the Paycheck Guarantee Act. Similar to programs implemented by Germany, Singapore and South Korea, it would cover workers’ paychecks and businesses’ operating costs directly without requiring intermediaries:
Here’s how it would work: After employers file a sworn statement with the IRS on the amount of revenue lost due to covid-19, the IRS would use 2019 tax filings to calculate a grant that totals the percentage of revenue loss multiplied by payroll and benefits for workers up to a salary cap of $90,000. Businesses would also receive an additional 25 percent to cover operating costs, such as rent, so they don’t close permanently.
Rather than relying on preexisting banking connections that too often leave out small and minority-owned businesses, the bill would facilitate payments straight from the IRS to the employer. Every employer, regardless of size, would be eligible because every business deserves an equal chance at survival regardless of whether they have lobbyists and connections to big banks.
The bill would also allow employers to rehire workers laid off or furloughed after March 1, immediately shrinking the unemployment rolls. It would be renewable on a monthly basis, scaleable to revenue loss, until key economic triggers are met. To prevent employers from gaming the system, the bill includes strong worker protections and fraud prevention measures to ensure quick implementation and oversight.
Efforts to date set up a desperate situation for families and businesses unable to pay their bills. It also sets up conditions for disaster capitalists to snap up failed businesses and properties and further concentrate control of the economy (and the government) in the hands of an elite few. Just what happened after the financial collapse of 2008.
Beating this virus means keeping people out of the workforce long enough to strangle its spread. This means relieving “the economic pressure that businesses and workers are reeling from right now.”
Film critic Roger Ebert (IIRC) once described the ethos of the teen-slasher genre as “Calvinism berserko,” i.e., “think of having sex and die.” The public policymaking corollary is “think of not working and die.”
Congress is quick to bestow public largesse on entrepreneur-investors and to give working people the hairy eyeball. In “Animal Farm” terms, “workers good, job-creators better.” Makers must be properly incentivized (positively) to keep generating returns for investors. Takers (hourly workers) must be properly incentivized (negatively) to keep turning the wheels. In this enlightened era, we’ve simply substituted the law for the lash. If they die, tough luck.
That is why provisions in the Paycheck Guarantee Act are likely to meet a cool reception on Capitol Hill. Conservative lawmakers (of both major parties) want the working class to feel the economic pressure to return to work in a deadly pandemic. Workers serve the economy. It need not serve them.
In praising Elon Musk’s claim Tuesday that he would restart Tesla production in defiance of Alameda County, Calif. rules, an exasperated Jim Cramer told CNBC’s audience, “It’s time to open up that factory … I don’t want to violate the law, but come on!” Cramer said he agrees that “the whole thrust of this country is to put people to work.”
That defines “the cult of hard work” that should have died with the Victorian Era.
● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
For The Win, 3rd Edition is ready for download. Request a copy of my free countywide GOTV mechanics guide at ForTheWin.us. This is what winning looks like.
Note: The pandemic will upend standard field tactics in 2020. If enough promising “improvisations” come my way by June, perhaps I can issue a COVID-19 supplement.