The Decline Of The American Work Ethic Will Exacerbate The Recession
The Atlanta Federal Reserve recently projected that second-quarter GDP fell by 1.9 percent. If its model proves correct, the U.S. economy has fallen into a recession with GDP shrinking for two consecutive quarters…
The Biden administration’s bad economic policies bear much of the responsibility. So, the administration and congressional Democrats are trying to distract from the contracting economy and runaway prices by pointing to the supposedly strong labor market…
On Friday, the Labor Department announced that the economy created 372,000 jobs in June and the unemployment rate held at 3.6 percent. President Biden has continually bragged about the supposed historic job creation under his watch taking credit for people returning to work following the pandemic.
Yet, employers are desperate to hire.There are 11.3 million unfilled jobsnationwide. That’s nearly 2 jobs for every unemployed person…
Well, the answer is equally obvious. Not enough Americans are willing to work. The labor force participation rate remains well below its pre-pandemic standard..
Generous social welfare programs, expanded during the Covid-19 pandemic, help explain this labor market paradox.
During most of 2021, supplemental federal unemployment benefits and boosted child tax credits, distributed monthly, paid most entry-level workers more to stay home than return to work. A June 2021 study by economists at the Committee to Unleash prosperity found that afamily of four with two parents out of work earned around $72,000 in unemployment benefits, more than the national median household income.These programs have ended thanks to brave, primarily Republican, policymakers…
Pandemic-era welfare enhancements still in place have aided the current disinclination to work ethic. For instance,Congress expanded food stamps and removed work requirements to receive them. The United States Department of Agriculture gave states “emergency allotments” of food stamps that have continued long after the pandemic emergency ended.
In October, the Biden administration implemented the largest permanent increase in food stamps in the program’s history. Theaverage food stamp benefit is now nearly double what it was in 2019. Unsurprisingly, the number of households on food stamps has not meaningfully declined since the pandemic ended.
The public health emergency also allowed states toincrease Medicaid enrollment by 20 percentand forbade them from removing residents from the program even though many likely no longer qualify. They cannot do so until the Biden administration declares an end to the public health emergency.
These welfare expansions are in addition to the smorgasbord of public benefits out-of-work Americans already receive, including unemployment insurance, housing vouchers, energy subsidies, childcare subsidies, and direct cash assistance. In addition, states offer their own social programs. Together, they amount to a government-dependency trap, disincentivizing work.
Employers across the country tell me that their employees routinely make the rational decision to drop out of the workforce entirely – or at least take a break from it – cushioned by this generous aid.
Congress must immediately roll back this expanded welfare, reinstate associated work requirements, and reform longstanding programs to help the labor market reach and exceed its pre-pandemic peak..
Fully reestablishing the American work ethic is a long-term project. Unfortunately, the economic problems the country is facing are here and now. If our elected leaders are unwilling to acknowledge the problem, let alone address it, expect the recession to be deeper and longer as a result. If we do not restore the American work ethic, expect much worse.
(The evil Covid 19 architects would be so proud of these results)
https://thefederalist.com/2022/07/08/the-decline-of-the-american-work-ethic-will-exacerbate-the-oncoming-recession/