Thanks to unemployment insurance, poverty declined last year (with Amy Goldstein and Elliott Morris)

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer

Civic Ventures

Business, Government, News, Politics

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 19 October 2021

⏱️ 32 minutes

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Summary

It’s been a little over a month since the unemployment benefits programs that were established by the CARES Act expired, so we’re taking a look at how well they worked. Washington Post writer Amy Goldstein and Elliott Morris, a data journalist at The Economist, deliver the facts to Jessyn and Paul. Amy Goldstein is a staff writer at The Washington Post, where much of her work has focused on social policy. She is the author of Janesville: An American Story. Twitter: @goldsteinamy Elliott Morris is a data journalist at The Economist. Twitter: @gelliottmorris Further reading: Poverty fell overall in 2020 as result of massive stimulus checks and unemployment aid, Census Bureau says: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/09/14/us-census-poverty-health-insurance-2020/ Welfare rolls decline during the pandemic despite economic upheaval: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/08/01/welfare-roles-during-the-pandemic/ Why now is the time to fix the UI system: https://www.epi.org/publication/introduction-why-now-is-the-time-to-fix-the-ui-system/ The racial disparity in unemployment benefits: https://www.rand.org/blog/2020/07/the-racial-disparity-in-unemployment-benefits.html Unpacking Inequities in Unemployment Insurance: https://www.newamerica.org/pit/reports/unpacking-inequities-unemployment-insurance/introduction/ Ending pandemic unemployment aid has not yielded extra jobs—yet: https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2021/08/28/ending-pandemic-unemployment-aid-has-not-yielded-extra-jobs-yet Janesville: An American Story: https://bookshop.org/books/janesville-an-american-story-9781508283966/9781501102264 Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com/ Twitter: @PitchforkEcon Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Nick’s twitter: @NickHanauer

Transcript

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0:00.0	The unemployment system that we've been relying on through these last 18 months was designed
0:06.3	and implemented during the Great Depression. So it's really old and out of date.
0:10.9	The number of people in poverty, portion of people in poverty actually got better in 2020
0:16.4	than it had been the year before. And that was really because so many people were getting various
0:21.2	kinds of aid. I think the question is why can't we have a robust safety net all the time,
0:26.0	not just during the pandemic?
0:32.7	From the home offices of civic ventures in downtown Seattle, this is pitchfork economics,
0:37.7	with Nick Hanauer, the best place to get the truth about who gets what and why.
0:48.8	I'm Paul Constant and I'm a writer at Civic Ventures.
0:52.1	I'm Jess and Farrell and I'm Senior Vice President at Civic Ventures and a former State
0:56.8	Legislator. So the three key pandemic era unemployment benefit programs that were
1:05.2	established by the CARES Act last year expired on September 6th. So we're going to take a look
1:11.7	at how they went today. Yeah, and I think the spoiler alert is that we think they went as well as
1:20.2	they could have, right, that it was really important to put money and support into place in
1:28.4	this massive economic crisis that we've experienced in the last 18 months. And I mean, I think what
1:36.2	is really interesting about this is that the unemployment system that we've been relying on through
1:41.4	these last 18 months was designed and implemented during the Great Depression. So it's really old.
1:47.1	And I think in a lot of ways, somewhat rickety and out of date for this moment, especially
1:53.2	given that in the Great Depression, like the typical worker was a white male head of household
1:57.2	and manufacturing. And obviously so much has changed about the workforce since then.
2:03.4	We've gone from a manufacturing economy to a service economy where workers who used to
2:10.7	be in factories 10 hours a day are now working at Walmart 10 hours a day. And there's a lot of change
	...

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