Inspired by all the recent flurries
we’ve had in Wisconsin, John Torinus is back shoveling the yellow snow
of economic policy. He begins with two head-scratchers.
“Congress
should think twice before getting too generous with weekly unemployment
compensation. That’s because manufacturers are already having a hard time
finding enough workers to man their factories.”
First,
what is “too generous” for weekly unemployment compensation? Recent
compensation has been bolstered by the fact that we’re living through a global
pandemic. It’s part of a stimulus package to keep workers and businesses
afloat. It’s not meant to exist into perpetuity.
Second,
it’s been pretty clearly and universally established that manufacturers are
having a hard time finding workers because the work is grueling and worth more
per hour than the amount they are willing to pay.
Tornius
alerts, “The labor shortage is real.”
Again,
this is wrong. Pay that is not commensurate with the work that is being asked
to be done is real. We have a compensation problem, not a skills shortage or a
labor shortage.
Torinus
then pretends that stimulus money distributed during the ongoing pandemic has
left many just sitting at home collecting checks, and many others just planning
to do this forever. This is classic Republican bullshit. They’ve been claiming
this garbage forever. Poor and working class are lazy and will stay home if
given then chance. Yet, conservatives will bend over backwards to cut taxes and provide
incentives to the rich. Remember, The Haves are the job creators and something will
eventually trickle down to the poor and working class.
He then
talks of the plethora of living wage jobs available for any willing worker.
“Employers have also raised starting wages in this area to $14 to $16 per hour.”
$15 per hour results in a yearly income of just over $30,000.
Torinus
continues with even more drivel, “Yes, it is a noble goal to want a minimum
level of income for every adult in the United States. But the better way to get
there is through good-paying jobs in the private sector. Government jobs, which
always seem to keep growing in number, may be necessary, but they do not propel
the economy.”
Last I
checked, the private sector has been around a while. We’ve deregulated, cut
taxes and genuflected to their omnipotence for decades. Yet, the economy has
been a roller-coaster of recessions alongside declining wages and benefits for
most workers. And, despite Torinus saying so, the number of government employees
has been declining, not increasing. As Fiona Hill, of the Brookings
Institution, found, “Contrary to popular belief in the
bloated growth of the U.S. public sector, the size of the federal government
proportionate to the total U.S. population has significantly decreased over the
last 50 years.”
Torinus’ article seems, in
the end, to be an elaborate smoke and mirrors, which concludes, somehow, that
the government is preventing the private sector from employing more people and
also responsible for helping the private sector to employ more people.
He concludes, “We don’t need
excessive unemployment compensation if there are lots of open jobs with good
pay and benefits. Congress and the president have to get the incentives right.
We can’t afford disincentives for working.”
Again,
what is “excessive unemployment compensation”? What and where are these “open
jobs with good pay and benefits”? Funny, too, that, with Republicans, “We can’t
afford disincentives for working.” Yet, the subsidies, tax cuts and giveaways
to corporations and billionaires can’t be considered anything but a
disincentive and/or welfare. Somehow, in the twisted Republican logic, giving
incentives to The Haves is sound economic policy, but giving
incentives to those who really need it, is bad for business.
