Work Futures Update | System-wide Weakness

| Megan Tobias Neely | More Elbow Room | Self-Managed Self-Management | Viral Flows | 30% Don’t Take Problems To HR |

Photo by Alec Favale on Unsplash

2020–04–08 Beacon NY | Megan Tobias Neely is the source of this Update’s title.

Quote of the Moment

During bull markets, employers and policymakers often paint the hardships befalling low-wage workers as stemming from those workers’ personal failures. But when markets crash, we learn how these workers’ troubles were indicative of persistent, system-wide weaknesses.

| Megan Tobias Neely, What Will U.S. Labor Protections Look Like After Coronavirus?

Neely points out the most egregious weakness in the US economic system: We have tied healthcare to employment, and with so many laid off or working in the gig economy, they have no health insurance during a pandemic. Her prescription?

A more robust safety net would help to mitigate the consequences for workers today as it shores up the economy against future downturns. For years, U.S. policymakers have considered universal healthcare impractical because of its large scope and high startup costs. But as new unemployment claims surge to historical levels and Americans face the medical precarity of a…