The U.S. Needs Social Insurance More Than Stimulus
The Senate’s coronavirus-relief bill is a big step forward, but does too little for America’s newest public servants.
Just a passing grade, senator.
Photographer: Win McNamee/Getty Images North AmericaA stunning and unprecedented economic pause is under way in the U.S. and across the world. The downturn is already sudden and severe, with more than 3 million Americans filing for jobless benefits in the last week alone, a new record.
Yet the shape of the downturn isn’t the strangest thing about it. What’s extraordinary is the concentration of economic pain on particular sectors of the economy — not by accident but by design. The government is fighting a pandemic by bringing economic activity to a virtual halt across a range of industries: travel, restaurants, “inessential retailing,” live entertainment and so on. In effect, the people losing their jobs and livelihoods have been drafted into national service.