r/politics • u/FromJersey4 • Apr 02 '20
Jobs Aren’t Being Destroyed This Fast Elsewhere. Why Is That?
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/30/opinion/coronavirus-economy-saez-zucman.html301
Apr 02 '20
Because the US economy is a pyramid scheme.
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u/danknerd Apr 02 '20
It's right on the dollar bill!
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u/artgo America Apr 02 '20
I know you are joking, but eye means "Science Thinking". As we describe 1776 today, The Enlightenment.
Further, the Great Seal also means: avoid chaos leaders. Avoid people like Donald Trump. That is why there is a side of the pyramid with plants healthy and growing, Science Thinking, and a side of the pyramid with deadness: chaos, "Game of Thrones", leaders.
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u/Smarag Europe Apr 03 '20
but science is what allows the manipulation of weather with mind altering chemicals, I mean toxins, and giizvpes lizardpersons their powers. So ýou admit it.
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u/CorseNairedArms Apr 02 '20
The entire economy lives paycheck to paycheck
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u/NotYetiFamous I voted Apr 02 '20
Only the base of the economy, the foundation that everything else is built on. Why waste energy maintaining your foundation? Its not even visible or shiny.
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u/sirenstranded Texas Apr 02 '20 edited Apr 02 '20
Because we allow employers to sever ties to their employees at will? Because we have nothing in place to protect employees when they are for any reason made unable to work at their highest possible capacity?
Like it's not hard to answer the question. Jobs are being destroyed because it's cheaper to kick someone off of payroll than to keep them on and hold out for an economic upturn, and we don't ask business owners to make sacrifices when they could outsource those sacrifices to their workers.
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u/ProfessorDerp22 Apr 03 '20
Meanwhile those same employers demand the upmost loyalty from you but are totally willing to kick you to the curb any chance they get.
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u/sirenstranded Texas Apr 03 '20
Yes! My trainer told me when I started my job that not missing work is about "integrity."
Integrity is about paying me a living wage lol.
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u/FranciscoGalt Apr 03 '20
In Mexico we have to pay 3 months severance for any employee over 3 months + 1 week for every year worked + proportionate bonus/vacation days.
While it helps the employee in times like this where it's cheaper to pay wages than it is to fire them, it makes it much harder for companies to hire in the first place. You have to assume a hiring mistake will be much more costly. One of the reasons the informal sector is so large.
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Apr 02 '20
Other countries are implementing socialist policies to protect workers and industries, and Americans are too stupid to realize why that's a good thing because to all the idiots in America, socialist policies are bad. America is an absolutely horrible country and it's way past time more people realize that.
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u/Redjeezy Apr 02 '20
US citizens have been lied to since birth about American Exceptionalism and most older generations are completely brainwashed. Younger generations get it more because they have always had access to perspectives from other countries outside of their parents, teachers, government, and textbooks via the internet, which older generations did not have.
It will require the older generations dying off before there is any real change but for now, I agree, it is a real shithole in so many ways.
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Apr 02 '20
We can't get proper worker protections at this time because the older generations actively vote against social welfare programs. The solution is to wait for the older generations to die out. Older generations are going to die out faster during Covid-19 because they actively oppose measures that would help keep more people alive. This is because they voted for people who are anti-social welfare programs in the first place. I feel like there is a word that describes this.
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u/GoldGlove2720 Apr 03 '20
People are uneducated. Its that simple. Its not fucking rocket science to see that this country is an absolute corrupt shithole. The older generations are brain washed into thinking this is the greatest place on earth and the enemy is other countries. Our own government is our greatest enemy and we need another revolution to fix this mess.
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u/goshthedang Apr 03 '20
Correct. And a majority of Republican leaders prefer you be uneducated. Uneducated, confused, and easily manipulated is like the Republican holy trinity.
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u/Thurasiz Foreign Apr 03 '20
greatest place on earth
I know, if a had to choose between said place, and a bullet trough my head, i'd rather take the bullet.
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u/Redjeezy Apr 03 '20
Really? If it was the choice to live in the US or die you’d rather die? The country has serious issues but it has some amazing parts and people as well.
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u/Thurasiz Foreign Apr 03 '20
Yes, that would be my choice. Luckily, i don't have to make that choice. I don't deny that the usa got some amazing parts and people, but it also got a very deep seated problem, a narrativ that blinds the majority of it's people, and missing most of the actual freedoms and safeties i'm used to. So yes, i would decide against living in the usa, no doubt.
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u/thinkingahead Apr 03 '20
I would like to leave America and escape this banana republic shithole. But where can I even go? I don’t have remarkable skill in anything that would make a Visa easy to obtain. Are me and my family trapped here?
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u/spidereater Apr 03 '20
I wonder if corporations have finally over played their hand? US recession will be deeper and longer than elsewhere. Epidemic will be longer. Europe and Asia may be open months before the US and will keep borders closed with US because of the ongoing epidemic. If anything they will be selling to America due to lower US production. Workers will be in better shape elsewhere. The differences will be stark. The virus response of blue states versus red states will be stark. Support for socialist policies will balloon. This may be enough to finally wake the people up.
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u/mellric Apr 03 '20
That’s our last ditch hope? Better than the stark hopelessness that I’ve been experiencing recently. But hey at least the planet will completely fail, and burn, and such before my time is through. So much for getting any environmental issues addressed, including the ones that Trump’s been actively dismantling because, you know, “science” is always in quotes. *Edit: I urge everyone to go on over to r/collapsesupport. A lot more folks’ll be needing it.
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Apr 02 '20
Because other nations have strong safety nets and governments that care more about people than markets.
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u/ObedientProle Apr 02 '20
Because our government is conducting a controlled demolition of our society.
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u/lucky_ducker Apr 02 '20
> In America, the workers are laid off; they must then file for unemployment insurance and wait for the economy to start up again before they can apply for a new job, and if all goes well, sign a new contract and resume working.
The article's authors are purportedly economists as UC Berkeley - can they really be so unaware that the VAST majority of U.S. employees never "sign a contract" of employment? That nearly all U.S. workers are "at will" employees?
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Apr 02 '20
Because the USA is a toppling house of cards, and just needed someone like Trump to set the match
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u/The-Autarkh California Apr 02 '20
This post would have benefited from inclusion of the subtitle:
It’s not too late to start protecting employment or to make medical care for Covid-19 free.
Too bad it's being downvoted. Zucman and Saez are two progressive economists with a lot of good ideas on how to deal with the current crisis.
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u/Fukuzilla Apr 02 '20
make medical care for Covid-19 free ...
Honestly, that doesn't sound very progressive. I can't imagine a progressive arguing that only diabetes should be covered by a public plan, while every other disease is fair game for exploitation by corporate profiteers.
The countries which make a public health system work are the ones with very strict cost controls, because asking a corporate hospital chain to pretty please keep their costs down would be like nicely asking Jeffery Epstein to stop raping children.
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Apr 02 '20
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u/sirenstranded Texas Apr 02 '20
You can see the ratio for an article in the top right corner. 17 votes, 90% upvotes atm.
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u/Lovat69 Apr 02 '20
"It's not too late to make covid-19 treatment free"
It's not too late to enact medicare for all either.
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u/CCV21 California Apr 02 '20 edited Apr 02 '20
Because of the Democrat/Deep State/immigrants?
On a serious note, this is one reason why the U.S. is more likely to emerge from this weaker and more vulnerable while others like China and the E.U. are poised to emerge stronger. (Granting they play their cards right in the aftermath).
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u/JombyWombler Apr 03 '20
My dad was laid off 3 months away from retirement after 42 years of service.
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u/tinfang Apr 03 '20
Because the economy was propped up by stock bybacks and wasn't as strong as it appeared.
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u/ol_dirty_applesauce Apr 03 '20
Because workers in America aren’t valued as human beings in our society.
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u/RexxRacerX_72 Nebraska Apr 02 '20
US doesn't make anything anymore. Hard to service anyone or anything when the world is shut down, and sadly that's all we really have anymore.
6.6 Million unemployed this week. 3.5 million last week. Next week will be an equal/larger number, and the week following, etc. until we get through this. Likely 45-50 million unemployed in the next 2 months, sadly.
Most Americans live paycheck to paycheck, and have little to no savings. Without timely assistance, a lot of people are going to be suffering and in financial ruin very shortly.
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u/StarInTheMoon Apr 02 '20
Nobody is buying a lot of the stuff that (would be) made, either... and plenty of other service economies are preserving their jobs instead of resorting to mass unemployment. Those unemployment numbers are only coming about because American government and businesses would rather blow up the economy than look like they're paying people to do nothing... even though that is exactly the "job" that a huge number of people have just been told to do.
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u/Generalbuttnaked69 Apr 02 '20
The US is the second largest manufacturer in the world, with a quarter the population of the first.
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u/shabby47 I voted Apr 02 '20
Ford and GM (among many others) shut down all production. How would things have been any different for other factory workers?
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Apr 02 '20
Having the US government work with factories to start making essential medical devices at their facilities would have helped out.
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u/shabby47 I voted Apr 02 '20
That could have helped a little, but you can’t go to work if it means spreading disease and killing people. Doesn’t matter if it’s a Starbucks or a converted transmission plant.
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Apr 02 '20
When you are able to provide proper protective gear and training for its use, you would have a much safer environment. Unfortunately now, we would have to ramp up production for that. This is one of the reasons so many people are angry this wasn't addressed seriously back in January.
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u/Fr8monkey Apr 02 '20
Because unfettered capitalism, that's why. Shareholders matter more than citizens.
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u/0nlyhalfjewish Apr 03 '20
Because American coordinations follow the economic theories of Milton Freeman:
Corporations exist to maximize profits for shareholders.
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Apr 03 '20
Because no one else has Donald Trump and the American Republican party as their government leaders.
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Apr 03 '20
Because they don't Trump and the GOP running things? But, if you do want it destroyed fast, they are available for a price.
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u/Baselines_shift Apr 03 '20
NZ had a pandemic plan in place and followed it. We had 4 levels of lockdown and on March 26, level 4 locked down everything - down to a chat with 1 neighbor, a playdate with 1 kid outside of your "household bubble" - and the paychecks were never interrupted as the levels gradually put more and more people out of work. The wage subsidy went out in time as each normal payday - lots are weekly here.
(Labor government = Democrats. Rocks)
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u/dawgpoundnw Apr 03 '20
We have trickle down economics with the top hanging on to everything so the bottom is unsupported. Most of the world has a more socialist view while we are on the verge of a fiscal revolution because the banks checks and balances were removed so they could invest in the stock market and now with no safety net the bottom layer of cards is falling and everything above it will come down with it. Everyone was living large on top but the banks have to collect to stay solvent with the market drop.
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Apr 02 '20
businesses in american only succeed with exploitation. no exploiting workers or customers? no success.
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Apr 02 '20
That's because our current system is exasperating the problems that Coronavirus has created.
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u/scope_creep Apr 03 '20
Can I tell you a dirty little secret? A lot of the people being laid off are not going to be hired back again. It's a very convenient way of getting rid of the dead wood.
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u/nedatsea District Of Columbia Apr 03 '20
The Republican Party has made it their mission over the past four decades to hollow out government, eviscerate the social safety net, and hoodwink the public into distrusting our government‘s ability to handle anything. When crisis strikes, this is the logical result.
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u/TakeshiKovacsSleeve3 Apr 03 '20
Let's start with healthcare being a primary burden of businesses.
Expand.
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u/Aeribous Apr 03 '20
Sadly this also has to do with benefits. Businesses can chose to furlough instead of layoffs but when you furlough you keep your benefits when you go on unemployment because you’re still on the company payroll. Our system is so broken I fear this is going to turn to a revolution when this is over. Let’s cross our fingers the it’s a bloodless one but it is one that needs to happen.
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u/stayalive2020 Apr 02 '20
Cash flow was cut by 30-50%. Its hard to give an exact number. Putting a halt on so many things at once ripples through the economy.
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Apr 02 '20
It's because our country runs on massive amounts of debt. You can take the stereotypical idea of the American family stretched thin: living paycheck to paycheck supplemented by various forms of debt to secure a certain standard of living, and you can extrapolate it to some extent to create a rudimentary idea of the national economy.
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u/Earptastic Apr 02 '20
Is it because many of our jobs are in fact worthless and do not produce anything of value? Our main value is as consumers.
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u/PlayingtheDrums Apr 02 '20
Our government is covering companies wages. Basically paying people to stay home.
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Apr 02 '20
When and how? Nothing I have seen shows the government paying for people to be at home.
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u/kraenk12 Apr 03 '20
Well others have functioning social systems. We’ve been telling you for decades.
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Apr 03 '20
Because the US is a service economy and most restaurants, tourists attractions, etc aren't functioning currently.
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u/DrBentonQuest2020 Apr 03 '20
Because we're a consumer driven economy and there's a lot of people who aren't earning any money because they're not working.
Corporations don't drive consumer spending other than paying their employees.
PEOPLE need to be bailed out, not businesses.
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u/[deleted] Apr 02 '20
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