THE REAL WORLD

OK, get ready for this, but I am about to agree with the Republicans on a significant issue.

The average unemployment benefit throughout the United States is $378 a week – that’s about $20,000 a year. If one adds the proposed $300 federal benefit, the average unemployed person’s income jumps to $35,000 per year. Which comes to $17.63 an hour. 

Now, I appreciate that for many of my readers, that is a wickedly small annual income, but that’s because many of my readers do not drive Ubers, do not wait on tables, do not drive cement trucks, do not make beds and clean rooms in hotels, etc.

All of this comes to my attention because Pinks and I have just spent a weekend in Pensacola, Florida, visiting my son Jesse who owns a small business in the area.

To broaden the perspective of my readership, I open with some shocking facts:

Despite the fact that they are Republicans, and more inclined to go to Church on Sunday then I am to go to shul on Saturday, the people in Pensacola are Nice People. In the course of our 3-day tour we visited a downtown restaurant, a highway restaurant, a “scene beach bar,” and we walked the streets in downtown Pensacola on a Saturday night.  I found the people to be gregarious and entirely pleasant. Strangers say hello, service personnel are eager to be of service, and while both men and women average more tattoos per square inch than those who live on the upper eastside of Manhattan, on balance, the people in Pensacola are considerably more pleasant.

One thing we did notice. Despite it being a balmy weekend at the start of the summer season, the most popular restaurants in town  were 20 to 30% empty. Nope, not for a lack of customers. The restaurateurs were turning customers away because they lacked kitchen help and wait staff. And while most people in the area own automobiles, without one you couldn’t get to restaurant anyway because there are no Ubers, there are no taxicabs this year in Pensacola. One day last week, there were no taxicabs at the Pensacola International Airport!  

Compared to New York City, Pensacola is an inexpensive place to live. For example, my son’s apartment costs less than, despite being twice as large as  the one he left in NYC  (and he couldn't see dolphins playing in the bay from E 76th St.) So earning 35k a year for doing nothing but sitting on the beach and drinking $8 beers isn’t as inconsequential some might think.

So far, 23 states have said “no thank you” to the added $300 per week unemployment stipend in the proposed Federal legislation. Each refusenik state says the same thing: they are suffering from under-employment. Companies cannot return to normal operations, No less expand, because they lack workers. (I confess some bias: my son is trying to expand his business but was delayed last week  because his contractor couldn’t find someone to drive the cement truck!)

I do not know if President Joe Biden, or his economic guru Janet Yellin, have visited Pensacola, Or indeed any of the refusenik states. Probably not, because those states are all Republican. But I have to say from my brief tour, some of what these states are saying is on the money and the Biden administration economists’ efforts to explain away the under-employment problem sound like pure  bullshit.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t for a minute suggest most congressional objections to much of the Biden program are well founded, or even in good faith. The opposition to a bipartisan commission to look into the January 6 insurrection is disgusting politics as is the opposition to federal legislation re the collection and counting of ballots.

But the rejection by some Republican states to renewing the $300 addendum to unemployment insurance seems sensible to me. 

Conclusion: I admit there are some people who would opt to work for less money than they would earn by not working,  but not enough of them, in my view, to make that a national economic policy.

A bientot.

……………………………………..

There is no fixed schedule for these posts. If you would like to receive a notice of each new posting, please fill out the form at <"http://eepurl.com/gf7fS9">.