I read in disbelief your editorial that advocated for the immediate end to the federal $300 unemployment supplement payments. The explanation of “but here is the situation in simplistic terms: Jobs are available, and too many people are unwilling to take them” is indeed childishly simplistic. Many of these so-called jobs are the lowest-paying service type that exploit people’s need for survival and those people are finally saying “enough” to this unfair exchange of subpar wages for their lives.
But then the editorial took a truly sinister turn. It openly acknowledged that millions of workers are reluctant, especially in service industries, out of fear of catching the virus and that many parents, particularly women, have dropped out of the workforce because child care is unavailable or unaffordable. Furthermore, it acknowledged that the solutions to these problems are “months or years away.”
Therefore, the suggestion of “an immediate step would be to remove the federal unemployment payments” amounts to punishing these reluctant workers for safeguarding their lives and taking care of their families. We are truly living in a late-stage capitalism world when we intentionally increase poor people’s desperation because, God forbid, I can’t go to Applebee’s for fajitas.
While America’s billionaires are profiteering, The Columbian’s editorial decided to kick down.
