Last week, more than six million people applied for unemployment, the largest jump in unemployment claims in our country’s history. The Federal Reserve estimates that the Covid-19 pandemic could lead to 47 million Americans losing their jobs in the weeks to come. With little hope of being re-hired, these workers will struggle to stay healthy, feed their children, and pay rent on the meager, one-time $1,200 check authorized by the most recent federal stimulus package.
At the same time, we face the consequences of starving our public infrastructure. Our cities are deficient in resources and underprepared for a pandemic epidemiologists have been warning government officials would be coming. Despite claims that ours is the best healthcare system in the world, our hospitals and nursing homes do not have sufficient masks, gloves, protective gear, flu tests, ventilators, hand sanitizer, or disinfectant wipes to protect either their own staff or their patients. We need workers to produce these essential products.
We know that millions of workers right now need jobs. We need to put Americans to work in good, well-paying jobs making the supplies and providing the services that we need as a nation to thrive. Radically expanding federal employment to put these displaced workers to work is in the interest of our national security.
If a federal jobs guarantee policy were enacted, the federal government would be empowered to provide both a living wage and health insurance to the recently unemployed. They would be put back to work manufacturing the supplies our nation’s healthcare workers desperately need and providing the essential services necessary to keep our nation’s schoolchildren, elderly and vulnerable fed and cared for during this frightening time. These jobs would pay a living wage of at least $15 an hour and include healthcare benefits. Instead of bailing out the stock market, our federal government could instead organize a civic labor force working for the health and security of American families through this continuing pandemic.
There is clear historical precedent for this type of response during a crisis. During the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt introduced the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which provided jobs for workers who needed them aimed at strengthening the public infrastructure and building prosperity for the next generation of American children.
Dramatically expanding AmeriCorps, an existing federal program which already employs thousands of workers in various civic improvement projects, would put more people to work in service to their communities. What would these federally-employed workers get paid to do? The United States might follow the example of other developed nations in nationalizing essential manufacturing. This was exactly the purpose and scope of the Defense Production Act. No factory capable of producing masks, protective gear, hand sanitizer, or ventilators should be standing idle through a healthcare crisis. Failing to use these resources for the benefit of the greater good during a deadly pandemic is unacceptable.
Medical supplies are not the only things America needs to survive this pandemic. According to CNN, while some food banks are shutting down, others are reporting that demand has quadrupled. Food pantries are unable to keep up with demand, as laid-off workers seek food assistance and volunteers are stuck at home. Right now, the National Guard is employed in this essential work of feeding those who cannot feed themselves. Given that summer is coming, and with it forest fires and hurricanes, it is only a matter of time before we will need them elsewhere. Preparing and delivering meals safely is obviously a critical mission for our federal government during a pandemic, and the administration should be making plans to employ civilian workers to perform this essential labor.
In the absence of a larger government response that genuinely recognizes the unprecedented precarity of the typical American wage earner, families are turning to GoFundMe. Hundreds and hundreds of pages in the last two weeks have been set up to help neighborhoods provide food to the vulnerable, to donate money to laid off restaurant workers, and pay for health-related costs. In no way is this a sustainable or ethical safety net in the richest nation on earth.
In these times of great inequality, where millions of American workers face an uncertain employment future, a federal jobs guarantee program could turn the page on a dark chapter of our nation’s history. New York and Texas have both enlisted the incarcerated to make hand sanitizer, as prison labor is cheap and the incarcerated have little recourse. Meanwhile, those in dire need of income are working without protective equipment or health insurance to provide food delivery to those who are able to self-quarantine and work from home.
While some may suggest employing people during a pandemic might put them at risk, it is clear that “essential” workers are already doing these jobs for lower pay, no benefits, and with insufficient protective equipment. Providing this option, alongside robust unemployment benefits and other essential labor protections, will make both workers and our society safer.
Without a federal effort to provide economic security and health insurance to those who need it, the most vulnerable Americans will continue to put their lives at risk, exacerbating inequality and making recovery even harder. As Donald Trump weighs a job program as part of a larger investment in infrastructure, a federal jobs guarantee must be an essential part of the package.
Cassandra Robertson, PhD, is a postdoctoral fellow at the Cornell Population Center, where she researches economic mobility and social policy.
Holly Wood, PhD, is an independent scholar, writer and activist.
Coronavirus is draining America’s public infrastructure. A federal jobs policy would protect its workers
When millions face an uncertain employment future, a federal jobs guarantee program could turn the page on a dark chapter of our nation’s history
Photograph: Justin Lane/EPA
Last week, more than six million people applied for unemployment, the largest jump in unemployment claims in our country’s history. The Federal Reserve estimates that the Covid-19 pandemic could lead to 47 million Americans losing their jobs in the weeks to come. With little hope of being re-hired, these workers will struggle to stay healthy, feed their children, and pay rent on the meager, one-time $1,200 check authorized by the most recent federal stimulus package.
At the same time, we face the consequences of starving our public infrastructure. Our cities are deficient in resources and underprepared for a pandemic epidemiologists have been warning government officials would be coming. Despite claims that ours is the best healthcare system in the world, our hospitals and nursing homes do not have sufficient masks, gloves, protective gear, flu tests, ventilators, hand sanitizer, or disinfectant wipes to protect either their own staff or their patients. We need workers to produce these essential products.
We know that millions of workers right now need jobs. We need to put Americans to work in good, well-paying jobs making the supplies and providing the services that we need as a nation to thrive. Radically expanding federal employment to put these displaced workers to work is in the interest of our national security.
If a federal jobs guarantee policy were enacted, the federal government would be empowered to provide both a living wage and health insurance to the recently unemployed. They would be put back to work manufacturing the supplies our nation’s healthcare workers desperately need and providing the essential services necessary to keep our nation’s schoolchildren, elderly and vulnerable fed and cared for during this frightening time. These jobs would pay a living wage of at least $15 an hour and include healthcare benefits. Instead of bailing out the stock market, our federal government could instead organize a civic labor force working for the health and security of American families through this continuing pandemic.
There is clear historical precedent for this type of response during a crisis. During the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt introduced the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which provided jobs for workers who needed them aimed at strengthening the public infrastructure and building prosperity for the next generation of American children.
Dramatically expanding AmeriCorps, an existing federal program which already employs thousands of workers in various civic improvement projects, would put more people to work in service to their communities. What would these federally-employed workers get paid to do? The United States might follow the example of other developed nations in nationalizing essential manufacturing. This was exactly the purpose and scope of the Defense Production Act. No factory capable of producing masks, protective gear, hand sanitizer, or ventilators should be standing idle through a healthcare crisis. Failing to use these resources for the benefit of the greater good during a deadly pandemic is unacceptable.
Medical supplies are not the only things America needs to survive this pandemic. According to CNN, while some food banks are shutting down, others are reporting that demand has quadrupled. Food pantries are unable to keep up with demand, as laid-off workers seek food assistance and volunteers are stuck at home. Right now, the National Guard is employed in this essential work of feeding those who cannot feed themselves. Given that summer is coming, and with it forest fires and hurricanes, it is only a matter of time before we will need them elsewhere. Preparing and delivering meals safely is obviously a critical mission for our federal government during a pandemic, and the administration should be making plans to employ civilian workers to perform this essential labor.
In the absence of a larger government response that genuinely recognizes the unprecedented precarity of the typical American wage earner, families are turning to GoFundMe. Hundreds and hundreds of pages in the last two weeks have been set up to help neighborhoods provide food to the vulnerable, to donate money to laid off restaurant workers, and pay for health-related costs. In no way is this a sustainable or ethical safety net in the richest nation on earth.
In these times of great inequality, where millions of American workers face an uncertain employment future, a federal jobs guarantee program could turn the page on a dark chapter of our nation’s history. New York and Texas have both enlisted the incarcerated to make hand sanitizer, as prison labor is cheap and the incarcerated have little recourse. Meanwhile, those in dire need of income are working without protective equipment or health insurance to provide food delivery to those who are able to self-quarantine and work from home.
While some may suggest employing people during a pandemic might put them at risk, it is clear that “essential” workers are already doing these jobs for lower pay, no benefits, and with insufficient protective equipment. Providing this option, alongside robust unemployment benefits and other essential labor protections, will make both workers and our society safer.
Without a federal effort to provide economic security and health insurance to those who need it, the most vulnerable Americans will continue to put their lives at risk, exacerbating inequality and making recovery even harder. As Donald Trump weighs a job program as part of a larger investment in infrastructure, a federal jobs guarantee must be an essential part of the package.
Cassandra Robertson, PhD, is a postdoctoral fellow at the Cornell Population Center, where she researches economic mobility and social policy.
Holly Wood, PhD, is an independent scholar, writer and activist.