66,000 more jobs lost in Canada in August

Another 66,000 jobs disappeared in Canada in August, coming on top of a loss of 41,000 jobs in July.

Canadian economy bled 66,000 jobs in August as unemployment rate at its highest since 'pandemic days' | CBC News - Abby Hughes:

September 5, 2025 - "Canada's unemployment rate reached nearly its highest point since 2016 as the economy shed 66,000 jobs in August, according to new data from Statistics Canada. The unemployment rate rose 0.2 percentage points in August to 7.1 per cent, a level last seen in May 2016 if the COVID-19 years of 2020 and 2021 were excluded....

"The unemployment rate, or the number of people unemployed out of the total labour force, has been rising consistently this year, up from a 6.6 per cent rate in January.... 

"Reduced hiring and layoffs largely fuelled those numbers, Statistics Canada said, with the layoff rate rising to one per cent in August, compared to 0.9 per cent at the same time last year. 

"This comes after the economy lost a total of 41,000 jobs last month.....

"Statistics Canada says most of the jobs lost — some 60,000 — were part-time ones, while there was little change in the number of full-time jobs. Most of the losses were also among workers between 25 to 54 years old, with little change in youth employment.... 

"Pedro Antunes, Chief Economist at The Conference Board of Canada, says the report overall is bad news. He points out that while youth unemployment also remained high in August, that age group had previously made up more of the drag on jobs. But now, the losses in August were among the core age group in the workforce....

"A critical metric, called the participation rate, that shows how many people were economically active — either in jobs or actively looking for them — was at 65.1 per cent, also at its lowest since the pandemic.

"The transportation and warehousing sector lost 23,000 jobs and manufacturing bled 19,000. The scientific and technical services sector also dropped 26,000 jobs... Geographically, Canada's manufacturing hubs were also hit harder, with Windsor, Ont., reporting an unemployment rate of 11.1 per cent and Oshawa, Ont., reporting a nine per cent rate. Persistent uncertainty around U.S. trade policy has kept Canadian businesses on tenterhooks, leading to minimal hiring and investment.... 

"Chief economist at BMO Capital Markets Douglas Porter said ... the weak report could open the door to rate cuts by the Bank of Canada later this month though with inflation remaining high, that factor hasn't given them the 'all clear'.... Porter expects a rate cut when the central bank announces its next interest rate decision on Sept. 17."

Read more: cbc.ca/news/business/canadian-economy-bled-66-000-jobs-in-august-as-unemployment-rate-at-its-highest-since-pandemic-days-1.7625918

How gov't agencies can manipulate economic data

U.S. president Trump has accused the Bureau of Labor Statistics of manipulating economic data for political reasons. Ron Paul says that would be nothing new. 

Newsflash: Governments Lie | Ron Paul Institute | Ron Paul:

August 11, 2025 - "Bureau of Labor Statistics head Dr. Erika McEntarfer is one of the latest persons President Trump has told 'you’re fired.' President Trump said this month that he fired Dr. McEntarfer because the president believed she manipulated jobs data. Manipulations, he stated, include the updated May and June BLS numbers showing the U.S. economy created 258,000 fewer jobs than originally reported, as well as the weaker than expected July jobs report. All of this, the president suggested, was designed to make President Trump look bad.

"Following Dr. McEntarfer’s firing, many commenters worried that President Trump’s actions would create the perception that government unemployment and inflation data is manipulated to produce the numbers desired by the president. A loss of confidence in government statistics could impact demand for US Treasuries ... increasing government’s interest payments.

"President Trump is correct that BLS manipulates statistics related to the economy, but it has been doing so since long before Donald Trump moved to the White House. For example, starting in 1994, the BLS stopped including 'discouraged' workers who have stopped looking for work in the official unemployment figures. The BLS also includes those working part-time as employed even if the only reason they are working part-time is they cannot find full-time work. According to John Williams, publisher of the website Shadow Stats, including discouraged and part-time workers who want full-time work in the unemployment figures increases the unemployment rate by almost 20 percent!

"The government also understates the effects of inflation. One way it does this is by using 'chained CPI.' Chained CPI means that even if price inflation has made steak unaffordable for most Americans, the government does not consider their standard of living lowered if they can buy a 'substitute' such as hamburger. This ignores the fact that if consumers viewed hamburger and steak as equivalent then they would likely have chosen cheaper hamburger before Federal Reserve-caused price inflation made steak unaffordable.... According to John Williams’s Shadow Stats, using a more accurate definition of inflation would increase the inflation rate to as much as 12 percent.

"Manipulating the unemployment and inflation rates allows the government to gaslight the people into believing that the economy is strong and any signs of weakness — such as rising prices or an increase in unemployment in their town — are anomalies that do not reflect the economy’s real condition. Manipulating the inflation figures to understate the true amount of inflation also lowers the 'cost of living' increases the government must provide for veterans, beneficiaries of Social Security, and others. This provides a way for government to cut spending without Congress members having politically difficult votes.

"President Trump has done a service by highlighting that government statistics regarding the economy are manipulated. Many of those criticizing President Trump for endangering the 'credibility' of government’s inflation and unemployment numbers are either unaware of, or more likely have no problem with, manipulating data to fool the public into thinking the welfare-warfare system and the fiat money system are 'working.' They only object to manipulating the data to benefit President Trump. President Trump should ensure the government’s unemployment and inflation figures are as accurate as possible by appointing John Williams of Shadow Stats to head the Bureau of Labor Statistics."

Copyright © 2025 The Ron Paul Institute. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given.

https://ronpaulinstitute.org/newsflash-governments-lie/

Shadow Stats: https://www.shadowstats.com/ 

>40,000 jobs lost in Canada in July

More than 40,000 jobs disappeared from Canada's economy in July, driving the national employment rate down to its lowest point since the COVID pandemic. 

Canada's economy shed over 40,000 jobs in July, partly offsetting earlier growth | CBC News | Thomson Reuters:

August 8, 2025 - "The Canadian economy lost more than 40,000 jobs in July, sinking the share of people employed to an eight-month low, Statistics Canada reported on Friday, as the labour market gave back substantial gains seen in June. The unemployment rate, however, remained steady but at a multi-year-high level of 6.9 per cent, the agency said.

"The economy shed 40,800 jobs in July against a net addition of 83,000 jobs in June, taking the employment rate — or the percentage of people employed out of the total working-age population — to 60.7 per cent. The employment rate was the lowest since the pandemic and the loss of jobs was concentrated among permanent employees....

"The declines were largely driven by job losses among young people aged 15 to 24, a cohort that has struggled to find work.... Their employment rate dropped to 53.6 per cent, the lowest since November 1998, excluding the pandemic. 

"The youth unemployment rate, meanwhile, hit 14.6 per cent — the highest rate for this group since September 2010, again barring the pandemic years. High school students returning to class in the fall are having an especially difficult time finding work....

"The sectors hit hardest last month included the information, culture and recreation industry, which lost 29,000 jobs, while construction lost 22,000 jobs, and business, building and support services shed 19,000 jobs. Transportation and warehousing made gains with a 26,000-job bump."

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canada-labour-force-survey-july-1.7604068

Unemployment growing in Canada

Nearly half a million Canadians accessing EI as unemployment surges: StatsCan | True North | Isaac Lamoureux:

"More Canadians are receiving Employment Insurance benefits, as unemployment continues to grow across the country."

August 25, 2024 - "The number of Canadians receiving Employment Insurance benefits has risen over 10% since the same time last year, according to new data released by Statistics Canada. According to new data released on Thursday, 474,000 Canadians are receiving Employment Insurance benefits, rising 6,000, or 1.3%, since the previous month, marking the second consecutive monthly increase. Since June 2023, regular EI beneficiaries have increased by 44,720 to 473,980 recipients, a rise of 10.4%....

“'In general, variations in the number of EI beneficiaries can reflect changes in circumstances of different groups, including those becoming beneficiaries, those going back to work, those exhausting their regular benefits, and those no longer receiving benefits for other reasons,' reads the report....

Photo by Brian Hawkins, Flickr.

"Unemployment reached 6.4% in June 2024 across the country. This saw a similar rise from the year prior, growing 0.9% from 5.5% in June 2023, which had risen 0.5% from 5.0% in June 2022. 

"Statistics Canada attributed the rise in unemployment to 'more people search[ing] for work, while overall employment held steady.' However, the more people searching for work were new immigrants to the country.... Canada’s population grew by nearly 100,000 between May and June 2024. 

"While EI recipients rose by 1.3% between May and June 2024, not all provinces saw an increase. Alberta, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia were the only three provinces to see a decrease in recipients, at 1.7%, 1.4%, and 0.2% decreases, respectively. 

"The biggest increase in EI recipients between May and June 2024 was found in Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec, and Ontario, at 2.7%, 2.5%, and 1.7%, respectively.... Ontario saw the biggest increase by a large margin in EI recipients year-over-year, rising 25.1%.... 

"Canadians who last worked in natural and applied sciences have seen a 26.3% rise in accessing EI over the last year. Following that are those who worked in manufacturing and utilities, as well as legislative and senior management, which saw increases of 21.8% and 20.8%, respectively. Conversely, those who last worked in natural resources and agriculture, art, culture, recreation and sport both saw annual decreases in EI beneficiaries, at 7.2% and 1.2%, respectively....

"The increase was led by men aged 25 to 54 years old, which saw a rise of 12.8% in EI beneficiaries year-over-year, followed by women in the same age group, which saw a rise of 10.5%.... 

"Despite the recent rise, EI beneficiaries have fallen greatly from [a] peak in Jan. 2022 of 671,390, the furthest the data goes back."

Read more: https://tnc.news/2024/08/25/half-million-accessing-employment-insurance/

Canada's growing workforce and unemployment rate | CityNews | July 5, 2024:

100 million were pushed into poverty, says ILO

UN Labor Agency Finds Pandemic Pushed Over 100 Million Workers Into Poverty | Common Dreams - Jessica Corbett: 

June 2, 2021 - "Over a year after projecting that the coronavirus pandemic could have a 'catastrophic' impact on the global economy and workforce, the United Nations labor agency on Wednesday revealed that the public health crisis pushed more than 100 million workers worldwide into poverty. 

"The new report (pdf), entitled World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2021 (WESO Trends), also warns of the 'real risk that — absent comprehensive and concerted policy efforts — the Covid-19 crisis will leave behind a legacy of widened inequality and reduced overall progress in the world of work across multiple dimensions.'

"Worryingly, the International Labor Organization (ILO) report shows that 'the recovery process is likely to be both incomplete and uneven,' said Guy Ryder, the agency's director-general, in a video about the findings. 'Incomplete because the damage done will not be fully repaired by the end of 2022, we will still have a major jobs shortfall,' Ryder explained. 'Uneven because it's the rich countries, the high-income countries, which are the best placed — because they have vaccines, because they have the fiscal means to do so — to recover more quickly."

"The ILO found that relative to 2019, an additional 108 million workers worldwide are now moderately or extremely poor — meaning their families must survive on less than $3.20 per person each day. The report says that 'five years of progress towards the eradication of working poverty have been undone.' [emphasis added - gd]

"The pandemic has 'highlighted the vulnerable situation of migrant workers' and undermined recent progress on gender equality, the report adds. According to Agence France-Presse, Ryder told reporters that the ongoing crisis has also negatively affected efforts to end child [labour] and forced labor.

"'Looking ahead, the projected employment growth will be insufficient to close the gaps opened up by the crisis,' WESO Trends warns. 'To make matters worse, many of the newly created jobs are expected to be of low productivity and poor quality.'

"The U.N. agency projects that the pandemic-induced 'jobs gap' will hit 75 million this year and fall to 23 million next year. The gap in working hours — which accounts for the jobs gap and hours reductions — is expected to be the equivalent of 100 million full-time jobs in 2021 and 26 million full-time jobs in 2022.....

"'Worldwide, employment in the accommodation and food services sector is estimated to have been the worst affected by the crisis,' says the report. The wholesale and retail trade sector was also heavily hit, as was manufacturing and construction, which 'incurred a significant decline in employment as a result of the crisis, bearing the brunt of the impact in the industry sector.'

"'Recovery from Covid-19 is not just a health issue. The serious damage to economies and societies needs to be overcome too,' Ryder emphasized in a statement. 'Without a deliberate effort to accelerate the creation of decent jobs, and support the most vulnerable members of society and the recovery of the hardest-hit economic sectors, the lingering effects of the pandemic could be with us for years in the form of lost human and economic potential and higher poverty and inequality.'

"'We need a comprehensive and coordinated strategy, based on human-centered policies, and backed by action and funding," he added. 'There can be no real recovery without a recovery of decent jobs.'"

Read more: https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/06/02/un-labor-agency-finds-pandemic-pushed-over-100-million-workers-poverty 

Licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Only ending lockdowns can stimulate economy

Only Ending Lockdowns Can Stimulate the Economy | American Institute for Economic Research - Thomas L. Hogan:

March 18, 2021 - "Last week, President Biden signed legislation that will increase fiscal spending by $1.9 trillion. While often referred to as a 'stimulus' bill, it might be better described as 'relief' (although in truth, most of the spending is neither for relief nor stimulus). The prior week, a strong employment report showed that the US economy added 379,000 jobs in February, bringing the national unemployment rate down to 6.2 percent....

"The labor market has mostly recovered from the major disruptions of a year ago. Unemployment has fallen to less than half of its 14.7 percent peak last April and is now very close to the US long-run average around 6 percent. Unfortunately, the national average of 6.2 percent is not a good representation of the current state of the US economy due to an unusually wide dispersion in state-level unemployment. 

"According to the most recent data available, as of January there were ten US states with very low unemployment rates of 4 percent or less. These rates are historically low. For example, only five times since the Great Depression has the US average reached as low as 4 percent. At the same time, however, six states plus the District of Columbia have very high unemployment rates above 8 percent. These too are historic highs, only seen three times nationally since the Great Depression. What is causing this unprecedented divergence between states? Government lockdowns and business restrictions....

"The table ... shows the six states and Washington, DC with unemployment rates above 8 percent and the ten with low rates of 4 percent or less, along with the rankings of their restrictions as of early January according to two sources. The WalletHub rank is a weighted average of '14 key metrics […] from whether restaurants are open to whether the state has required face masks in public and workplace temperature screenings.' The stringency index is from the database of US state level Covid-19 Policy Responses from the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (CGRT) based on '18 indicators such as school closures and travel restrictions.' In both measures, high numbers represent greater restrictions. 

"Of the seven with unemployment rates of 8 percent or higher, five are in the top half of coronavirus restrictions according to both WalletHub and the Oxford CGRT. Washington, DC ranks 21st on each index, although the official number likely understates the true stringency due to its dependence on the federal government. The other exception is Nevada, which ranks 25 out of 51 according to WalletHub but just eighth by the Oxford CGRT. Google mobility data for Nevada have been very low, suggesting that activity has declined more in Nevada than in other states. Considering that Nevada––and Las Vegas in particular––is a major tourist destination, the decline potentially has as much more to do with government rules in other states, which require quarantining upon return, as it does with individuals to restrict activity on their own. 

"Nine of the ten states with unemployment rates of 4 percent or less are in the bottom half of both indexes of coronavirus restrictions. Vermont is the one exception. Google mobility data show active movement across the state that would position it in the middle range among all US states. Vermont may be closed according to the law, but it seems to be open in practice.

"While rates of unemployment have likely fallen since January, the state-level data reveal a consistent pattern. Unemployment rates are directly related to the strictness of coronavirus lockdowns and business restrictions. Closed states have high unemployment because it is illegal for businesses to employ people....

"The goal of fiscal policy is to draw unemployed people and resources into the economy.... But this cannot happen in states with strong lockdowns and legal restrictions that prevent businesses from operating.... Fiscal spending is also not helpful in states with low restrictions. Unemployment is already low in these states, so there are few unemployed workers to draw upon. More government spending will encourage wasteful production, as businesses invest in and workers are bid into pursuits that are less efficient and may be ultimately unsustainable."

Read more: https://www.aier.org/article/only-ending-lockdowns-can-stimulate-the-economy/

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Pandemic response harms children in many ways

Covid: The devastating toll of the pandemic on children | BBC News - Nick Triggle:

January 30, 2021 - "They are not likely to get seriously ill with Covid and there have been very few deaths. But children are still the victims of the virus - and our response to it.... From increasing rates of mental health problems to concerns about rising levels of abuse and neglect and the potential harm being done to the development of babies, the pandemic is threatening to have a devastating legacy on the nation's young.

"The closure of schools is, of course, damaging to children's education. But schools are not just a place for learning. They are places where kids socialise, develop emotionally and, for some, a refuge from troubled family life. Prof Russell Viner, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, ... told MPs on the Education Select Committee earlier this month: 'When we close schools we close their lives.' He [noted] a range of harms to children across the board from being isolated and lonely to suffering from sleep problems and reduced physical activity - alongside school closures all children's sport is currently banned.... Many experts are baffled by the approach to children's sport given the low risks of transmission outdoors and the clear benefits for emotional and physical wellbeing.... 

"The stress the pandemic has put on families, with rising levels of unemployment and financial insecurity combined with the stay-at-home orders, has put strain on home life up and down the land.... Unsurprisingly, there are clear signs the upheaval in children's lives is having an impact on children's mental health. The Mental Health of Children and Young People in England 2020 report, which is ... the official stocktake of the state of children's well-being ... found overall one in six children aged five to 16 had a probable mental health disorder, up from one in nine three years previously. Older girls had the highest rates.

"Older teenagers and adolescents have been affected too as they have seen their prospects shrink. The Youth Index, published in January by the Prince's Trust in partnership with YouGov, has been tracking the well-being of young people aged 16 to 25 for 12 years. It found more than half of young people were always or often feeling anxious - the highest level ever recorded. Jonathan Townsend, of The Prince's Trust, fears young people are 'losing all hope for their future'.

"At the opposite end of the age spectrum, health visitors, who support parents and babies during the early years, are worried about the impact on newborns. Research shows the first two to three years of a baby's life is the most crucial period of human development.... In some areas, health visitor numbers have dropped by half. This and the social distancing rules mean for a lot of parents the only support they have received has been online.... [T]he absence of baby and parent groups, and the friendships that naturally develop from them, has meant the babies of the pandemic have not benefited from the stimulus of social contact that is vital to their development. Alison Morton, head of the Institute of Health Visiting, says this has been an 'invisible' cost of the pandemic, but one that will have a lasting impact, particularly in the most deprived areas....

"There are around one million children with special educational needs and disabilities - around one in 10 of whom have complex and life-limiting conditions, such as severe cerebral palsy or cystic fibrosis.... Those with the most complex conditions can require care at home from specialist nurses and carers. This has become harder to obtain as staff have been redeployed or charities forced to cut back on their support networks.... Dame Christine Lenehan, director of the Council for Disabled Children, says in some cases children have ended up 'incarcerated' in their homes. 'There are some who have barely had any formal education since lockdown began.' She says even those who are the most independent have struggled, with many schools - she estimates more than half - unable to address the additional learning needs of children with special needs who are learning remotely....

"Between April and September there were 285 reports by councils of child deaths and incidents of serious harm, which includes child sexual exploitation. This was a rise of more than a quarter on the same period the year before. But children's commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, is worried this is just the tip of the iceberg, arguing the lockdowns, closure of schools and stay-at-home orders have led to a generation of vulnerable children becoming "invisible" to social workers. Referrals that would normally come in from a variety of sources, form health visitors to school nurses, dropped last year.... 

"Figures show that before the pandemic there were already more than two million children in England and Wales living in households affected by one of the 'toxic trio' - domestic abuse, parental drug and alcohol dependency or severe mental health issues. The fear is this will have risen significantly."

Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-55863841

Lockdown recession could kill 890,000 in U.S.

Unemployment During the Pandemic Expected to Cause 900,000 US Deaths, New Economic Study Finds | Foundation for Economic Education - John Miltimore: 

January 19, 2021 - "The toll of the coronavirus has been severe. But a new study has found that the collective response to the virus may ultimately claim more lives than the virus itself. In a new National Bureau [of] Economic Research paper, researchers from Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, and Duke University concluded that a staggering 890,000 additional deaths may result over the next 15 years stemming from actions taken to mitigate the spread of the virus.

“'Our results suggest that the toll of lives claimed by the SARS-CoV-2 virus far exceeds those immediately related to the acute COVID-19 critical illness and that the recession caused by the pandemic can jeopardize population health for the next two decades,' the researchers said. Specifically, the researchers cite unemployment spikes from lockdowns and other government restrictions that were two to five times larger than typical unemployment shocks. The findings are, to say the least, disheartening.

"Yet, the findings should not be surprising. Rising unemployment has long been correlated with higher death rates. A 1979 study concluded that for every 10 percent increase in unemployment, mortality increased by 1.2 percent. For this reason, social scientists have long argued that employment and economic growth are essential components of a healthy society.

"'Economic growth is the single most important factor relating to length of life,' said Yale School of Medicine professor M. Harvey Brenner in 2002, following completion of a pivotal study exploring the relationship between unemployment and mortality. 'Employment is the essential element of social status and it establishes a person as a contributing member of society and also has very important implications for self-esteem.'

"The Yale study’s findings are not unique. A 2014 article in Harvard Public Health magazine points to an abundance of research that reaches a similar conclusion: employment disruptions come with severe costs to mental and physical health. The body of research includes a 2011 meta-analysis — published in Social Science & Medicine — that concluded the mortality risk was 63 percent higher for individuals who experienced unemployment than those who did not....

"There are a multitude of reasons mortality risk increases during periods of unemployment, but the primary reason appears to be that unemployment literally makes people sick. A 2009 study by sociologist Kate W. Strully in the journal Demography concluded that losing employment from a business closure increased by more than 80 percent the risk of new health conditions.... These conditions included stress-related ailments such as diabetes, hypertension, stroke, heart disease, and arthritis, as well as various emotional and psychiatric conditions.

"There seems to be little debate that employment is not just a matter of cashing checks, but also of health and wellness. This is why last April I warned the historic surge in unemployment could have a profound impact on human health and lives. At the time, fear of the virus had gripped so many that the long-term consequences of lockdowns were rarely discussed, let alone acknowledged. This is a mistake, authors of the NBER paper say....

"This conversation is particularly important in the wake of new findings that show the steep costs of lockdowns may have had no clear benefits. A recently published study in the European Journal of Clinical Investigation evaluating global COVID-19 responses found that mandatory lockdowns failed to provide significantly more benefits than voluntary measures.... Numerous other studies reached similar conclusions. NBER researchers, however, accepted the premise that lockdowns work — albeit with deadly tradeoffs."

Read more: https://fee.org/articles/unemployment-during-the-pandemic-expected-to-cause-900-000-us-deaths-new-economic-study-finds/

Read study: Francesco Bianchi, Giada Bianchi, Dongho Song, "The Long-Term Impact of the COVID-19 Unemployment Shock on Life Expectancy and Mortality Rates." NBER Working Paper 28304. https://www.nber.org/papers/w28304

Lockdown zealots scarier than the coronavirus

Lockdown fanatics scare me far more than Covid-19 | Spiked - Brendan O'Neill:

May 8, 2020 - "I know I’m meant to be scared of Covid-19. But I’m far more fearful of the lockdown fanatics. These people who are so blase about the halting of economic life, and who bristle at any suggestion that the lockdown should be eased, pose a graver threat to the future of the UK than coronavirus does. They are a menace to liberty, reason and people’s livelihoods. Our society is taking steps to tackle Covid – now we need a huge collective effort to face down lockdown fanaticism....

"Here’s why lockdown fanaticism unnerves me more than Covid-19. The coronavirus pandemic is clearly a very serious health challenge. It is right that we take it seriously and that we devote as many of society’s resources as possible to ensuring that it doesn’t impact on the populace too harshly. It is right to propose social-distancing measures, which is what we had before the lockdown was imposed. But where Covid is proving to be less lethal than we first feared, lockdown fanaticism is proving to be more lethal.

"The Covid threat is not the apocalypse we were warned about. Its death rate is low. Its impact on younger people is negligible. Just 0.75 per cent of deaths in the UK have been among under-40s, and the majority of those were people with underlying health conditions.... The horror stories that were spread about Covid-19 by government officials and media fearmongers have been exposed as inaccurate, and in some cases hysterical. As the government adviser Professor Robert Dingwall says, the government has ‘effectively terrorised’ us into ‘believing that this is a disease that is going to kill you’. When in the vast majority of cases that simply isn’t true.... 

"So, coronavirus is proving manageable. It has not overwhelmed our health systems. It is not the plague. It is mild or even asymptomatic in most people. Society can handle it. What society can’t handle much more of, though, is lockdown fanaticism. This is a more destructive force than Covid-19.

"Covid is just a virus. It doesn’t know what it is doing. It spreads to survive. But the lockdown fanatics are conscious human beings. They know – or ought to – the destructiveness of the path they are carving out for Britain and other nations. They know the economic calamity and anti-social culture of fear they are foisting upon society, with all the mass unemployment, denigration of public services, and even death that this will cause. And yet they carry on.

"Britain is on the brink of the worst recession since the Great Frost of 1709, according to the Bank of England. Others are predicting an utterly unprecedented 13 per cent contraction in national output. Millions will lose their jobs. And that’s just the UK. More than 100 million Indians have lost their jobs as a result of the global contagion of lockdown. Many will be plunged into hunger, and worse. The International Labor Organization says 1.5 billion people around the world are at risk of losing their livelihoods. The halting of economic life and production and transportation could lead to a global ‘hunger catastrophe’, says the UN. I hope the lockdown fanatics think about that next time they post a pic of their latest loaf of sourdough.

"But they don’t think about it. Not seriously. They treat it as incidental.... Or, worse, they engage in a political sleight of hand. They say job losses, rising mental-health problems, lack of money and a global downturn that will hit the poor severely are also down to Covid. ‘Covid-19 is giving rise to economic problems, too’, they occasionally say. No. We cannot allow this. It is not Covid that is destroying livelihoods and liberties – it is our societies’ historically unprecedented, ill-thought-through, contagion-like authoritarian response to Covid; it is lockdown fanaticism.

"They need to take some responsibility. Covid can be excused; it’s a virus. The lockdown fanatics cannot be excused. Their extremism is hampering sensible government action, stymieing open public debate, and nurturing economic catastrophe. They must be held to account. More than that, they must be opposed. We need a return to reason, freedom and productivity."

Read more: https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/05/08/lockdown-fanatics-scare-me-far-more-than-covid-19/

New York City is dead

NYC is Dead Forever... Here's Why |  JamesAltucher.com - James Altucher:

 August 14, 2020 - "NYC has never been locked down for five months. Not in any pandemic, war, financial crisis, never. In the middle of the polio epidemic, when little kids (including my mother) were becoming paralyzed or dying (my mother ended up with a bad leg), NYC didn’t go through this.... 

"In early March, many people (not me), left NYC when they felt it would provide safety from the virus and they no longer needed to go to work and all the restaurants were closed. People figured, 'I’ll get out for a month or two and then come back.' They are all still gone. And then in June, during rioting and looting, a second wave of NYCers (this time including me) left.... I was a little nervous when I saw videos of rioters after curfew trying to break into my building.... Now a third wave of people is leaving....

"Businesses are remote and they aren’t returning to the office. And it’s a death spiral — the longer offices remain empty, the longer they will remain empty.... 

"Broadway is closed until at least the spring. The Lincoln Center is closed. All the museums are closed. Forget about the tens of thousands of jobs lost in these cultural centers. Forget even about the millions of dollars of tourist-generated revenues lost by the closing of these centers. There are thousands of performers, producers, artists, and the entire ecosystem of art, theater, production, curation, that surrounds these cultural centers. People who have worked all of their lives for the right to be able to perform even once on Broadway, whose lives and careers have been put on hold.... 

"Around late May, I took walks and saw that many places were boarded up. OK, I thought, because the protesting was leading to looting and the restaurants were protecting themselves. They’ll be OK. Looking closer, I’d see the signs. For Lease. For Rent.... Yelp estimates that 60% of restaurants around the United States have closed. My guess is more than 60% will be closed in New York City.... If building owners and landlords lose their prime tenants (the store fronts on the bottom floor, the offices on the middle floors, the well-to-do on the top floors, etc.) then they go out of business.... 

"There are almost 600,000 college students spread out through NYC.... I don’t know of any college fully coming back right away.... Let’s say just 100,000 of those 600,000 don’t return to school and decide not to rent an apartment in New York City.... That’s a lot of landlords who will not be able to pay their own bills..... So now it ripples back to the landlords, to the support staff, to the banks, to the professors, etc.... 

"Everyone has spent the past five months adapting to a new lifestyle. Nobody wants to fly across the country for a two-hour meeting when you can do it just as well on Zoom. I can go see 'live comedy' on Zoom. I can take classes from the best teachers in the world for almost free online.... You can live in your hometown in the middle of wherever. And you can be just as productive, make the same salary, have higher quality of life with a cheaper cost to live.... 

"It will be cheaper for businesses to function more remotely and bandwidth is only getting faster.  Wait for events and conferences and even meetings and maybe even office spaces to start happening in virtual realities once everyone is spread out from midtown Manhattan to all over the country. The quality of restaurants will start to go up in all the second- and then third-tier cities as talent and skill flow to the places that can quickly make use of them. Ditto for cultural events. And then people will ask, 'Wait a second, I was paying over 16% in state and city taxes and these other states and cities have little to no taxes? And I don’t have to deal with all the other headaches of NYC?'.... What reason will people have to go back to NYC? 

"I love my life in NYC. I have friends all over NY.... I could go a few minutes by Uber and meet with anyone or go play PingPong or go to a movie.... I could go out at night to my favorite restaurants and then see my favorite performers perform. I could go to the park and play chess, see friends. I could take advantage of all this wonderful city has to offer. No more."

Read more: https://jamesaltucher.com/blog/nyc-is-dead-forever-heres-why/

Lockdown recession hits youth the hardest

Coronavirus has created a 'lockdown generation', with one in six young people forced to stop working, UN warns | Daily Mail - Harry Howard:

May 27,2020 - "The ,,, International Labour Organisation said the COVID-19 crisis has disproportionately affected young people and could impact upon their work opportunities and career options for decades to come....

"'I don't think it is giving way to hyperbole to talk about the danger of a lockdown generation,' ILO chief Guy Ryder told a virtual press conference. 'As we recover from the pandemic, a lot of young people are simply going to be left behind. Big numbers,' he said, warning ... that 'this initial shock to young people will last a decade or longer.

"A survey of young people across the world by the UN's International Labour Organisation showed that 17.1 per cent of them have stopped working since the coronavirus pandemic struck. The figures show that 16.1 per cent of women and 18.1 per cent of men under 30 have stopped working. Even before the crisis, the global youth unemployment rate stood at 13.6 percent in 2019 - far higher than for any other group - while some 267 million young people were neither employed nor in education or training (NEET).

"Overall, the ILO study said it expected the coronavirus crisis to obliterate 10.7 percent of working hours worked globally during the second quarter of 2020 compared to the final three months of 2019 - the equivalent of 305 million jobs.... But while all age groups are suffering, the UN agency pointed to recent data from a range of countries indicating 'a massive increase' in youth unemployment since February, with young women particularly hard-hit.

"In the US for example, the jobless rate for young men went from 8.5 per cent in February to 24 per cent in April. The rise for young women - from 7.5 per cent to 29 per cent in the same period - was even greater. In Canada, the overall jobless rate rose six percentage points from February to April, but for young men it swelled by 14.3 percentage points (to 27.1 percent) and for young women it ballooned by 20.4 percentage points to 28.4 percent. Similar trends were seen in countries including Australia, China, Ireland, Republic of Korea, the Netherlands and Switzerland....

"The ILO said it did not yet have enough data to determine the overall global youth unemployment rate since the crisis began. But in a survey of people aged 29 and under, it found that globally, over 17 percent of those who were working when the pandemic hit had been forced to stop. And those who have continued to work have meanwhile seen their working hours cut on average by 23 percent, the study found.

"The report warned that young people are facing a 'triple shock' from the crisis, which is not only destroying their employment but has also disrupted education and training, and has made it far more difficult to try to enter the labour market or move between jobs. It found that around half of students expect their education to be delayed, while 10 percent now believe they will be unable to complete their training at all. And a full 60 percent of young women and 53 percent of young men surveyed viewed their career prospects 'with uncertainty or fear', the report found."

Read more: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8361629/Coronavirus-created-lockdown-generation-one-six-young-people-forced-stop-working.html

How Britain stumbled into lockdown

These people have no idea what they're doing: Ex-Supreme Court judge LORD JONATHAN SUMPTION gives a devastating verdict on our political leaders' handling of the crisis | The Mail on Sunday - Jonathan Sumption

June 21, 2020 - "Does the Government have a policy for coronavirus? Indeed it does. In fact, it has several ... all mutually inconsistent and none of them properly thought through.... [T]his crisis has exposed .. a dysfunctional Government with a deep-seated incoherence at the heart of its decision-making processes.

"The Government has repeatedly claimed to be ‘guided by the science’. This has in practice been a shameless attempt to evade responsibility by passing the buck to scientists for what are ultimately political, and not scientific, decisions. Scientists can advise what measures are likely to reduce infections and deaths. Only politicians can decide whether those measures make sense in economic and social terms too.

"Sage {Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies], the committee of scientists advising the Government, has been very clear about this, as the minutes of its meetings show.... Ministers press them for the kind of unequivocal answers that will protect them from criticism. Scientists cover themselves by giving equivocal answers, which reflect the uncertainty of the science. The Government responds by avoiding any decision for which it would have to take political responsibility, until the pressure of events becomes irresistible, when it lurches off in a new direction.

"Plan A was published on March 3. It concentrated on ensuring the provision of medical and other essential services. It relied on advice and guidance to the public, not coercion. The Government stood out against the authoritarian and indiscriminate measures which were being applied in Italy, and later in other European countries.

"Plan B was an abrupt U-turn. On March 18, the Government announced the closure of schools. On March 20, pubs, cafes and restaurants were added. Finally, it announced the full lockdown on the evening of March 23. That was a last-minute decision made that afternoon, for which the Government had made no preparations at all. It had not included a lockdown power in the Coronavirus Bill which was then going through Parliament. Instead, it was forced to make legally questionable use of public health legislation designed to control the movements of infected people, not healthy ones. Even then, it took another three days to prepare the regulations, and meanwhile pretended that they were in force when they were not.

"Judging by its minutes, Sage was unenthusiastic about closing down the hospitality industry, forbidding large gatherings or closing schools. From an early stage, it had pointed out that the real threat was to people over 70 and those with serious underlying medical conditions. Since March 5 they had been advising the Government to ‘cocoon’ those people, and others who either had the disease or lived in the same household.... ‘Citizens’, the behavioural scientists advised, ‘should be treated as rational actors, capable of taking decisions for themselves and managing personal risk.’ If this advice had been followed, it would have left almost all the economically active members of the population free to earn their livings and sustain the economy.

"Indiscriminate lockdown was a panic response to the now-notorious statistical model produced on March 16 by Professor Neil Ferguson’s team at Imperial College. Panic responses leave little room for reflection. No serious consideration appears to have been given to the potentially catastrophic side effects. In fact, the Imperial team did identify the main problem about a lockdown. In an earlier report to Sage, they had pointed out that once a disease had taken hold in a population, ‘measures which are too effective merely push all transmission to the period after they are lifted, giving a delay but no substantial reduction in either peak incidence or overall attack rate’. They repeated this view when they recommended a lockdown on March 16 and said that to be effective, it would need to be maintained until a vaccine was available, ‘potentially 18 months or more’....

"The Government justified its Plan B as a temporary measure designed only to delay the peak until the NHS’s intensive care capacity had caught up. But when it came to Plan C, which was unveiled on May 10, they forgot all about that. By then the NHS had caught up, mainly as a result of the Government’s one undoubted achievement, namely the rapid increase in the country’s critical care capacity.... But instead of lifting the lockdown, it merely nibbled at its edges, announcing that its essential features would remain in place for weeks or months....

"[T]hree weeks later on June 2 ...[w]e were heading for an economic catastrophe: gross domestic product down by more than a fifth and falling; 3.5 million jobs set to be lost in the hospitality industry alone; unemployment already up to two million; several million businesses snuffed out; job openings for a generation of young people extinguished. Why was the PM ... surprised? What did he expect to happen if he closed down the economy for several months and conducted a scorched-earth campaign against the rest of our national life? The only plausible explanation was that he had never properly thought about it...

"So we moved to Plan D, announced on June 10, which involved a general return to work. But in many areas the return was stymied by the Government’s two-metre physical distancing rule. The rule never had any rational basis.... Experiments by the Department of Health (reviewed by Sage) indicate that the risk of airborne transmission is low outside a healthcare setting. It is being maintained because the Government wants scientific cover and Sage cannot rule out some risk that prolonged face-to-face contact at less than two metres might cause some infection. No one in government was grown-up enough to confront the real issue: does a low risk justify a huge economic cost?...

"Finally, there is the ultimate absurdity of the quarantine recently imposed on incoming travellers, which the Government has admitted was not based on any scientific advice, but simply (it seems) on the mistaken belief that the public would applaud it. The Government is now trying to backtrack by negotiating ‘air bridges’ with other countries. But it does not need to negotiate anything. This is a problem of our creation. We can simply lift the restriction at our end. Like so many of the Government’s measures, it is being maintained simply in order to avoid admitting that it was a mistake....

"You have to go back to the early 1930s to find a British Cabinet as devoid of talent as this one. The Prime Minister, who in practice makes most of the decisions, ... is incapable of studying a complex problem in depth. He thinks as he speaks – in slogans. These people have no idea what they are doing, because they are unable to think about more than one thing at a time or to look further ahead than the end of their noses. Yet they wield awesome power. They are destroying our economy, our cultural life and our children’s education in a fit of absent-mindedness."

Read more: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8443747/LORD-JONATHAN-SUMPTION-people-no-idea-theyre-doing.html

Economic shutdown can kill, too

Drugs, Suicide, and Crime: Empirical Estimates of the Human Toll of the Shutdown | American Institute of Economic Research - Audrey Redford & Thomas K. Duncan:

March 28, 2020 - "As the coronavirus pandemic continues across the world, leaders and policymakers have scrambled to respond to the growing health crisis. In the United States, multiple state governors have issued statements urging their citizens to follow social distancing guidelines. Other governors have taken more extreme measures, issuing orders to effectively lock down the entire state economy....

"There have been forecasted estimates of virus-related death totals for the US from as high as 10 million, to 2.2 million, to more conservative estimates.... The models used to estimate the potential death rates are not without criticism and repeated adjustment.... However, as important as it is to get the cost of not shutting down right, it is also important that policymakers properly weigh the cost of the economic shutdowns themselves....

"[T]he ability to operate in a functioning economy is important for the people within it. The economy is the people, and the people are the economy. The ability to continue to function in a market system does matter to individuals within the system, particularly when the inability of business to remain open and continue to employ them is in question.

"We have already started to see some of these human effects as the unemployment has quickly rocketed beyond even the early initial projections. A rise in unemployment is correlated with a number of negative socio-economic effects. For some, these effects can be quite deadly....

"A 2017 NBER paper finds a 3.6% increase in the opioid death rate per 100,000 people for a 1% rise in unemployment. There were 14.6 opioid deaths per 100,000 in the US in 2018. If we use the more conservative estimate of a 20% unemployment rate without a quick return to lower levels, ... there is potential for an additional 28,797 deaths from opioids annually.... Consider that [in] 2018 ... 46,802 deaths were considered an opioid crisis....

"Similarly, Mulia, et al, (2014) connects a rise in alcoholism to economic loss during the Great Recession. The CDC estimates that 2,200 people die in the US just from alcohol poisoning annually.... In 2017 alone, there were also 22,246 deaths resulting from alcoholic liver disease.  As the jobless rate increases and the economic losses continue to mount, these numbers are likely to rise.

"Blakely, et al, (2003) find that being unemployed may also increase the risk of suicide two to threefold. Milner, et al. (2014) similarly finds that unemployment is associated with a higher relative risk of suicide, with prior mental health issues being a key factor in that association. While a study by Kerr, et al, (2018) did not find that unemployment is directly linked to suicides, it did find a significant link between poverty, suicide, and alcoholism.

"Lin and Chen (2018) ... find that unemployment does have a direct impact on older portions of the population, the portion of the population many of the current shutdowns are most meant to protect. Whether it is the direct unemployment effect or the potential poverty produced from the economic shutdown that leads to greater suicides, an increase from the 48,344 suicides and 1,400,000 suicide attempts in the US in 2018 should give decision-makers pause....

"Ajimotokin, et al, (2015) estimate that a one percent change in unemployment will increase the property crime rate by 71.1 per 100,000 people and the violent crime rate by 31.9 per 100,000 people.... Kposowa and Johnson (2016) find that unemployed workers are over 50% more likely to become homicide victims than those who are employed. They also find people not in the labor force to be 1.3 times more likely to be victims than those who are employed....

"The future during such a pandemic is largely uncertain, and misinformation is rampant in the current panic. Policymakers face tough decisions as they navigate the issues of data collection, virus transmission, and economic ramifications of doing too little or too much. It is vitally important, literally life and death, that the proper costs and benefits are weighed with the decision on how much and how long to shut down economic activity through the pandemic."

Read more: https://www.aier.org/article/drugs-suicide-and-crime-empirical-estimates-of-the-human-toll-of-the-shut-down/

29% of US economy shut down in April

Coronavirus shutdowns idle 29% of U.S. economy | Market Watch - Josh Mitchell:

April 5, 2020 - "At least one-fourth of the U.S. economy has suddenly gone idle amid the coronavirus pandemic, ... an analysis conducted for the Wall Street Journal shows.

"The study, by the economic-analysis firm Moody's Analytics, offers one of the most comprehensive looks yet at how much of the world's largest economy has shut down in the past three weeks, and which states and regions are being slammed the hardest. While the full extent of the economic damage won't be apparent for years to come, the abrupt halt of commerce caused by state-imposed closures has never occurred on such a wide scale, economists say.

"Moody's analyzed every county in the U.S. and the composition of its industries to estimate how government orders to reduce activity have likely affected output. As successive states have imposed such orders, the impact has grown.

"Forty-one states have ordered at least some businesses to close to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, according to Moody's. Restaurants, universities, gyms, movie theaters, public parks, boutiques and millions of other 'nonessential' businesses have shut off the lights as a result. The upshot: U.S. daily output has fallen roughly 29%, compared with the first week of March, just before the spate of closures, the analysis shows. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, ... believes many counties will reopen before the summer and projects a 30% annualized decline in second-quarter GDP....

"Annual output fell 26% between 1929 and 1933, during the Great Depression, Commerce Department data show. Quarterly output fell almost 4% between late 2007 and mid-2009, the last recession.

"The shutdowns are concentrated in the most populous counties, which produce a disproportionate share of the nation's goods and services. Eight in 10 U.S. counties are under lockdown orders, according to Moody's, but they represent nearly 96% of national output....

"The analysis almost certainly underestimates the total hit because it looks only at the lost output caused by the abrupt closure of businesses to date. It doesn't consider how much output will be further lost due to additional demand-side drops from higher unemployment and the loss of household wealth on household and business spending.

"The current economic crisis is unlike past crises such as the 2007-09 recession, which was caused in large part by a massive run-up in household and business debt and the housing crash. That recession began with what is known as a demand-side shock -- a loss of household wealth and income that led to decreased spending, which eventually harmed the supply side, or businesses. This time, the reverse is occurring: The supply side, businesses, are closing first, which is in turn hurting households....

"The business closures will ultimately hurt the demand side of the economy, which in turn will further dent output. The most significant evidence of that, thus far, is layoffs. Roughly 10 million people applied for first-time unemployment benefits in the two weeks through March 28, according to Labor Department figures, shattering previous records. Those workers could ultimately pull back on spending, in turn further hurting other businesses that remain open."

Read more: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/coronavirus-shutdowns-idle-29-of-us-economy-2020-04-05

U.S. unemployment rate estimated at 17%

Coronavirus batters US economy as 6.65m file for unemployment last week | The Guardian - Dominic Rushe & Lauren Aratani:

April 2, 2020 - "More than 6.65 million people filed for unemployment benefits in the US last week, the latest official figures to highlight the devastating economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the American economy. The federal labor department announced that a new record number of people sought benefits after losing their jobs in the week ending 27 March as long lines formed at unemployment offices, phone lines jammed and websites collapsed under the weight of claims across the US.

"Some 3.3 million had filed for unemployment the previous week, bringing total claims to 9.95 million for the two weeks. More people have filed for unemployment in the last two weeks than filed in the last 10 months.The US now faces the sharpest rise in unemployment in its history, a surge that is already highlighting income inequality across the nation and comes as the global economy goes into a nosedive that is likely to exacerbate the situation in the months ahead....

"'We are at the mercy of the virus," said William Rodgers, former chief economist at the US Department of Labor. Rodgers calculates US unemployment, 3.5% in February, has already reached 17% in just two weeks and that rates for African Americans have soared to 19% from 5.8%....

"With large parts of the US now on lockdown, millions of people working in retail, restaurants, travel, hotels and leisure industries have lost their jobs and the losses are spreading. Oil and gas companies are laying off workers as oil prices collapse and engineering firms including General Electric are cutting staff as the airline industry grinds to a halt....

"Before last week the sharpest rise in unemployment claims was in 1982 when filings rose by 695,000.

"On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will release its first monthly jobs report since the Covid crisis hit the US. It is expected to show the first rise in unemployment in more than nine years. The figures were collected in the middle of last month, before General Electric, Macy’s, Marriott and others laid off workers. Economists are forecasting a rise to 4% unemployment, up from a 50-year low of 3.5% in February.... The figure will probably be revised sharply upwards next month when more data is available."

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/apr/02/us-unemployment-coronavirus-economy

Green New Deal could cost over $90 Trillion

Study: Green New Deal Could Cost More Than $90 Trillion – Reason.com - Joe Seyton:

February 25, 2019 - "The Green New Deal — a brainchild of progressive Democrats... — has been controversial since it was released....  How much would it cost? At least $50 trillion and possibly in excess of $90 trillion, according to a report released ... by the American Action Forum (AAF).

"The AAF, a center-right think tank that focuses on economic issues, projected costs for six aspects of the Green New Deal: reworking the electricity grid in an environmentally friendly manner, revamping the nation's transportation network to reduce transmissions, and its guarantees of well-paying jobs, universal health care, affordable housing, and food security for each person in the U.S.

"One of the Green New Deal's goals is to meet '100 percent of the power demand in the United States through clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy sources' in the next 10 years. Achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in this area would cost at least $5.4 trillion by 2029, the AAF says — not including another $387 billion per year for things like operations and maintenance.... [T]otal electricity costs would go up by 22 percent for consumers, the AAF says. Residential customers, who paid an average of $111.67 per month in 2017, would pay an average of about $300 more per year for electricity.

"The Green New Deal also proposes 'overhauling transportation systems ... to eliminate pollution and 19 greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector as much as is technologically feasible.' The AAF's estimate of the cost for this proposal assumes that high-speed trains would replace air travel.... Doing so would cost between $1.3 trillion and $2.7 trillion, the AAF estimates....

"The Green New Deal's jobs guarantee would also cost a considerable amount. The AAF based its estimates here on a 2018 report from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, which found that reaching full employment would involve putting roughly 10.7 million unemployed or underemployed people to work [which] would cost a total of $543 billion.... The AAF updated some of those numbers with 2019 data, and found that a federal jobs guarantee would cost $547 billion in 2019, and $6.762 trillion from 2020 to [2029].. Both of those numbers would rise if, with a guaranteed job waiting for them, many of those who aren't currently looking for work decide to join the labor force....

"The report also estimates that providing universal health care 'will cost roughly $36 trillion between 2020 and 2029.' The AAF simply built off a 2016 estimate of Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I–Vt.) Medicare for All Plan, which the Center for Health and Economy said would cost $34.67 trillion over 10 years. It's likely an accurate projection, roughly in line with a July 2018 Mercatus Center report, which said Medicare for All would cost the federal government more than $32 trillion over 10 years.

"The fifth aspect of the Green New Deal that AAF addresses is its guarantee of 'affordable, safe, and adequate housing." Simply housing the homeless could cost under $12 billion, AAF estimates.... But the Green New Deal also calls for 'upgrading all existing buildings ... to achieve maximal energy efficiency, water efficiency, safety, affordability, comfort, and durability, including through electrification.' Applying such costs to all housing units ... yields a potential cost of $1.6 trillion to nearly $4.2 trillion."

Read more: https://reason.com/2019/02/25/study-green-new-deal-could-cost-more-tha/

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The free market's safety net

The Sharing Economy Is a Free Market Safety Net - Foundation for Economic Education - Working for a free and prosperous world - Brittany Hunter:

September 15, 2017 - "The sharing economy has been one of the most groundbreaking market creations in our modern time even though its concept is quite simple. If you own a car, you can earn money as a driver. If you have an apartment or home, you can earn money renting out the space. There really isn’t much to the sharing economy. If you have property or a skill that is in demand by another consumer, you have the ability to earn money. And for those in between jobs or trying to figure out their next employment move, the sharing economy can be a lifesaver....

"I once had the pleasure of riding with a driver who was currently out of work while she was recovering from surgery ... and ... had used up all her paid time off.... But thanks to Uber, my driver didn’t have to worry about income or filing for short-term disability or other welfare programs while she waited to get back to work. She was earning money while avoiding the stir-crazy feelings of being trapped inside her house while she healed.

"Another driver I rode with in DC had recently moved to the United States from the Middle East and was trying to start his own catering business. Not only did Uber allow him to pay his bills while he was starting his business, it also helped him network. Each of his passengers was given a business card and one free 'trial' meal which he would personally deliver....

"I could tell dozens of these stories, as I am sure many of you could as well. Ridesharing helped all these drivers provide for their well being and even helped some build their businesses. But ridesharing is only one small sector in the broader sharing economy.

"One of the most stressful components of sudden unemployment is the worry that rent won’t be paid. But the homesharing sector has also provided a solution. As long as you have a friend who is willing to let you sleep on their couch or perhaps family who resides nearby, there are ways to rent out your lodgings in order to pay the bills.

"But the sharing economy is not limited to property. There are many who many find themselves unemployed without either a car or a rentable living space, but they may have a skill. Smartphone apps like TaskRabbit allow users to sell their own labor. If you possess the muscles needed to move boxes all day, you can become a mover. If you are capable of mowing a lawn, you can find someone in need of a yard trimming.... For those in the beauty or wellness world, there are also apps that will connect cosmetologists and hairstylists to clients....

"Work is not some construct invented by evil capitalists.... It is a source of pride and self-esteem.... When that daily opportunity to take pride in creation is removed because a person is unemployed, especially for longer periods of time, there are psychological impacts that extend far beyond the stress that comes with money problems. In fact, depression and unemployment are an ominous duo.

"Uber and ridesharing in general is a great way to not only socialize with other humans, but can also be beneficial for preparing for an interview. Once you are able to master the art of conversation without the often accompanying nerves, you have gained a skill that may help during the interview process.

"Is the sharing economy the perfect solution to the problem of unemployment? Absolutely not. But neither is our current unemployment system.... Our current unemployment system comes with red tape, strings attached, and a whole lot of bureaucracy. And all this must be endured before even receiving that first unemployment check. But so long as the government allows the existence of the sharing economy, the market can continue offering nearly instant employment opportunities to those looking for work."

Read more: https://fee.org/articles/the-sharing-economy-is-a-free-market-safety-net/
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