Kyra Lieberman – In Motion Editor-in-Chief
More than 22 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits in the past month.
Jobless numbers like this have never been seen before, but these numbers don’t scratch the surface of the amount of people who have actually lost their jobs, only the people who are willing and able to apply to receive benefits. They do not count the part-time workers who lost their jobs, people who are unable to file for unemployment and undocumented workers. As many as one in four Americans may now be unemployed.
During the Great Recession, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 8.8 million jobs were lost, bringing the unemployment rate to nearly 10%. Those jobs were lost over the course of almost three years. Almost double that amount were lost in three weeks, with 17 million jobless claims between March 14 and April 4.
The highest rate of U.S. unemployment of all time was in 1933, during the Great Depression, when it peaked at 24.9%. Some economists at the Federal Reserve estimate that the unemployment rate will reach 32% this year, meaning more than 47 million Americans will be unemployed.
Many companies have furloughed some or most of their employees, including Macy’s, ZipRecruiter, Air Canada and President Trump’s hotel properties. Some companies, including Sephora, have received backlash for laying off thousands of employees at once on a Zoom call then hanging up.
A universal basic income has been in the cards for decades, but has gotten more mainstream attention over the past year with former Democratic presidential candidate and businessman Andrew Yang proposing a $1,000 “Freedom Dividend” be paid to every American over the age of 18. It was a plan to decrease the rampant wealth and income inequality in our society and allow every American to be fed, housed and comfortable. Yang’s argument for the UBI was backed by some four million manufacturing jobs lost in the U.S. due to automation and the trend toward automation in food service, retail, call center and truck driving jobs.
Now, with tens of millions of jobs now on hold indefinitely or lost for good due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the need for a UBI has never been more apparent. It is unknown when people will be able to get back to their jobs, if they still have them. During uncertain times, where many people’s lives and jobs are at risk, a UBI with no contingencies is not only necessary, but inhumane to deny.
A society is not free until all citizens have freedom of choice and the ability to provide for themselves and their families. Tens of millions of Americans do not know where their next meal is coming from and cannot afford their medicine, gas, rent, childcare or an emergency room visit. This pandemic is hitting low income families and African Americans harder than anyone else. People who do not have easy access to healthcare or safe and healthy living conditions are dying at a higher rate than anyone else in the country.
The U.S. has systemically disadvantaged the poor and people of color for centuries, with disproportionate rates of imprisonment, less access to healthcare, severely underfunded schools, dysfunctional social programs and low class mobility — meaning people born in poverty tend to stay in poverty, and those born to wealth tend to stay wealthy. A universal basic income could be the great equalizer that would push the U.S. in the direction of classlessness that it has always claimed to be.
The poor should not be punished for being poor, being pushed into close quarters and fearing higher crime rates that stem from wanting and needing more than is being given. Instead, they are being evicted and kicked off food stamps, even with pandemic protections in place. An equal starting point with a UBI would give everyone opportunities and would decrease crime because people would not be forced to turn to illegal means to fulfill their most basic needs for food, shelter and a comfortable life.
A one-time payment of up to $1,200 to qualifying Americans will be arriving in mailboxes soon, but that is not enough. The $1,200 amount was decided upon by rounding up from the federal minimum wage, an unlivable $7.25 an hour, which adds up to $1,160 per month when working full time, or 40 hours per week. People who were working part-time, college students who are claimed as dependents, undocumented workers and people who do not meet certain income or tax requirements are left with nothing. In addition, more than one million people whose spouses are taxpaying immigrants will not receive the stimulus check due to a Trump administration rule. The people who need the money the most are not receiving any.
In 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, “I am now convinced that the simplest approach will prove to be the most effective — the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income.”
The proposed Freedom Dividend would have guaranteed $1,000 a month to every American over the age of 18. By creating a floor upon which to rise up, people would be empowered to get an education, find better jobs and be able to take care of themselves and their families as well as spend more income, now that they had it, on purchasing goods and services. Not discriminating or creating thresholds and hoops to jump through is key for a successful social security program. Writing in exceptions, even for people who may not need the money, gives a hole in which to chip away at the funds for all.
We are living under the false guise of a trickle-down economy, which does not work. The U.S. has the greatest economic inequality of all Western democracies. Inequality has been rising yearly since the 1980s, with President Reagan’s tax slashing. In 1944, the top tax rate peaked at 94% on all taxable income over $2.5 million in today’s dollars. Reagan dropped the top tax rate to 28%. It helped the few, including the Wall Street members of his presidential cabinet, and its effects are still seen today, with the top 0.1% of earners owning more wealth than the bottom 80% of Americans put together.
The only way to begin to mend this country is to give everyone the same basic starting point, what Yang and other UBI proponents call a “trickle-up economy.” Wealth is created by workers, so it should go predominantly to the workers, not CEOs and shareholders who profit off of their labor. A UBI would mean not allowing 40 million people to struggle with hunger in the richest country in the world, not allowing 40% of Americans to be unable to handle a $400 emergency and not allowing more than half a million people to be homeless on a given night.
UBI is gaining favor in the political mainstream, even on both sides of the aisle. This global crisis may have a silver lining: it brings us together as much as it forces us apart, and may finally push politics in a new, needed direction.