That extra $600 weekly unemployment benefit for COVID is supposed to expire soon, and it seems like many are panicking. Traditional unemployment just gives a fraction of the income, and this extra COVID benefit was created to give people their full or close to their full income. It has helped eliminate defaults on loans, credit card payments and bills going unpaid, and rent and housing payments on time.
“Cutting off benefits to so many people at once would reduce their collective spending power by nearly $19 billion per week.”
In the article it states positives of the benefit - that extra money in the hands of Americans helps to stimulate our economy - and negatives of the benefit - those stories about employees that don’t want to go back to work because they are making MORE with the benefit than they would at work. What do you think about the benefit? Should it continue? What positives and negatives do you see?
An end to the $600 unemployment payment will make life difficult for many families already on the edge as the result of lock downs and the pandemic. I think the consequences of ending the $600 payment prematurely are worse than the consequences of continuing the payouts. Families being put on the streets or losing their cars will end up costing the american people and the communities they live in, more in the long run.
However, it does beg the question of; what metric do we use to know when people are good to go on without the increase in unemployment benefits? Is when the economy recovers? Or, will it be when new COVID cases drop below a certain number? Will it be when a vaccine goes on market? Also, I can see a push by some groups and legislators for making $600 the new, permanent unemployment payment. What would this do to the value of labor, if this is already more than what many make in jobs that are physically demanding with long hours?