Dear Friend:

Ignoring the fact that Donald Trump’s response to the pandemic has extended the worst economic collapse in decades, he continues to claim he “built the greatest economy in the history of the world.” Yet his Republican cronies think the $600 unemployment supplement is so high it will deter workers from returning to jobs.

Writing in Sold Short, The New Republic’s inequality section, J.C. Pan writes that “the curious situation of the enhanced unemployment benefits exceeding people’s wages also points to another grave (and worsening) aspect of American economic life that started well before the pandemic.” Pan’s answer to the Republican argument: “The pandemic benefit seems so great because actual wages are insanely low.”

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“Given the sorry state of nearly half of all workers’ wages in this country, it won’t be enough for the jobs lost during lockdowns to come back (though even that is far from guaranteed),” Pan adds. “We should ... extend the unemployment supplement for as long as it takes to safely weather the pandemic. But there’s also an opportunity in this moment to push for raising wages, which will be crucial over the long term as the country struggles to emerge from a new economic collapse.”

Pan gets to the heart of the matter: “While Washington’s attention remains fixed on unemployment, policies that connect raising wages to the immediate need to preserve and extend the federal unemployment insurance supplement could seed the ground for future fights to increase worker pay and make bad jobs better.”

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Sincerely,

Kerrie Gillis, publisher

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