Just over six months ago, Congress met in a rare act of strong bipartisanship to pass the CareS (Help, Relief and Economic Security by Coronavirus) Act almost unanimously, and, as expected, the law provided immediate monetary assistance to their families, small businesses, and some of the industries most affected by the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting recession.
The CARES Act worked because, for at least several months, key provisions were designed for the poorest 90% of wage earners who are the backbone of our economy. $ 2. 2 trillion federal aid has kept the economy afloat while, for For the good of all of us, companies are the last on their doorstep.
According to the knowledge of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly 22 million U. S. employees have been able to do so. But it’s not the first time They lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic recession. By July, nine million more people had returned to work. The CARES Act has helped make these returns possible. , however, we still have a long way to go towards recovery.
Since its inception, the pandemic has revealed with wonderful relief what we have studied economic inequality we already know: COVID-19 has revealed the vast network of underlying frailties that continue to threaten our nation’s fitness and well-being.
For example, we now obviously see how essential affordable child care and universal preschool should have a strong economy, either because of the way they make paintings imaginable to parents and for their role in helping young people thrive.
We also see how it is for staff to earn a living wage to prepare for economic recessions and emergencies, once they returned, it was obviously highlighted through the double economic and physical fitness crisis.
And we can see how small, the convenience store, the cafeteria and the restaurant, along with the dry cleaners and the dog hairdresser and everything else, are the backbone of our communities and yet they are so fragile in this crisis.
Indeed, policies that herald equitable expansion in all income streams are essential if we are to achieve a comprehensive and sustainable economic recovery.
The pandemic has also unmasked all tactics in which fitness care is a basic economic issue, it begins with the right of staff to have the right protective devices and to be able to stay at home when they are sick. life and death.
Then there are illnesses and deaths among the elderly, those with underlying fitness disorders, and communities of color that have exposed the consequences of decades of under-funded public fitness systems and the legacy of lack of fitness insurance prior to the Affordable Care Act.
Although the CARES Act helped us save ourselves from the economic disaster, it has now almost expired. As a result of the inability to provide assistance, job expansion has stagnated.
In its most recent report, the Bureau of Labour Statistics reported that losses previously considered transitory due to the pandemic are permanent and that the number of new tasks opened in August has slowed after 3 months of increases.
Now, in September, we see an economy where more companies go bankrupl. Big industries are delivering big layoffs. And tenants with months of hiring will be evicted when the moratorium expires.
Meanwhile, Congress has failed to pass an additional aid program that extends to the economic security of workers, businesses and the family circle. When they do, it is vital that these measures remain in place until the economy heals.
We will have to seek to oppose the decisions made over more than 50 years that have made our economy so fragile and, instead, concentrate on laying the foundations for a strong economic recovery characterized by equitable growth.
This means a low paid for ill health for all workers, regardless of the length of their employer, which reimburses them one hundred percent of their wages. many workers.
It also means expanding unemployment insurance benefits for those who have lost their jobs to the pandemic, many of whom are black, Latino, and Native American, and who have suffered disproportionately from COVID-19.
Finally, no aid program can set us on track for a robust long-term recovery without more powerful systems that automatically stabilize the economy, staff and families. These automatic stabilizers, as they are called, accumulate spending at the first signal. minimize as the economy recovers.
To be clear, no genuine recovery can begin without containing the coronavirus beforehand. As we contemplate the prospective dip and rebound of the virus as Americans spend more time indoors, we focus on the policies we can put in position now to begin this recovery.
Only then can we respond to the recession and build a stronger economy for the future.
Heather Boushey, president and CEO of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, is “Unbound: How Inequality Constrains Our Economy and What We Can Do About It. “Follow her on Twitter: @HBoushey
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