Reopening the Economy Will Send Us to Hell

As unemployment (officially reported) soars toward 30 percent or more, an estimated 20 million more people will fall helplessly below the poverty line. In a recent Pew poll, 60 percent of Latinos reported losing jobs or wages, as did more than half of all workers below the age of thirty. In addition to their jobs, millions will lose everything they had spent their lives working for: homes, pensions, medical coverage, and savings accounts.

Source: Reopening the Economy Will Send Us to Hell | Portside

Mass Unemployment Is a Failure of Capitalism

The difficulties caused to workers by record unemployment during the pandemic are a product of capitalism. Most of the time, employers decide to hire or fire workers depending on which choice maximizes employers’ profits. Profit, not the full employment of workers nor of means of production, is “the bottom line” of capitalism and thus of capitalists. That is how the system works. Capitalists are rewarded when their profits are high and punished when they are not. It’s nothing personal; it’s just business. More

Source: Mass Unemployment Is a Failure of Capitalism – CounterPunch.org

“For Many Americans, Health Insurance is Tied to a Job”

Last Thursday, “P”BS “NewsHour” viewers got to see the show’s longtime economics correspondent (Paul Solomon) give a chilling account of how newly unemployed people are disastrously losing their health insurance in the middle of a pandemic.

Source: A Late-Breaking Bulletin From PBS: “For Many Americans, Health Insurance is Tied to a Job” – CounterPunch.org

White House official warns unemployment rate could climb past 20 percent.

Administration officials say there is more pain ahead for the American economy but are optimistic things will start to improve by the middle of the summer.

Source: White House official warns unemployment rate could climb past 20 percent.

The Pandemic Jobless Youthquake

In the crash of 2007–2008, it took nearly two years for the unemployment rate to double from 5 percent in December 2007 to 10 percent in October 2009. This time, the rate has quintupled in eight weeks. The only comparable numbers were in the Great Depression, but even then, the increase took much longer. It is hard to describe what we are seeing in these data as anything other than an unfolding disaster. We know that a long spell of unemployment when you are young creates a permanent scar—reducing earnings for decades and increasing the risk of adverse life events. The young are my greatest worry.

Source: The Pandemic Jobless Youthquake | David Blanchflower | The New York Review of Books