| The current "economic boom" is not as beneficial to average workers as it is portrayed. |
| Four in 10 American adults wouldn’t be able to cover an unexpected $400 expense with cash, savings or a credit-card charge that could be quickly paid off, a new Federal Reserve survey finds.
About 27 percent of people surveyed would need to borrow or sell something to pay for such a bill, and 12 percent would not be able to cover it at all, according to the Fed’s 2018 report on the economic well-being of households, which was released Thursday {5/23/2019}. Underlying disparities persist. Just 52 percent of rural residents said their local economy was doing well, compared with 66 percent of city dwellers. And while nearly seven in 10 white adults viewed their area’s economy as good or excellent, only six in 10 Hispanic adults and fewer than half of black adults said the same thing. Source: "Many Adults Would Struggle to Find $400, the Fed Finds" By Jeanna Smialek - NY Times - May 23, 2019 The basic problem is that most of the jobs offered today don’t provide the guarantees that workers once expected. This transformation is obvious in “gig economy” jobs like driving for Uber. But the gig economy is still pretty small; for most Americans, the problem is that their work has been gig-ified. Corporations used to pool major economic risks within their labor forces. They did so because they could — the pressures of financial markets and global competition were less constraining. And they did so because they thought they had to if labor unions were to remain satisfied. Now those risks are mostly on workers alone. These changes aren’t unique to the United States. Yet they’re uniquely consequential because of how we safeguard economic security. The United States spends more on social benefits than any affluent country besides France once you take into account tax breaks and employer-sponsored benefits. But there is a big difference: We have a system that is premised on employers providing many of the benefits that governments elsewhere provide directly. In the mid-20th century, American corporations came to be seen as mini-welfare states, providing workers not only with job security and continuous training but also with generous health benefits and a secure retirement income. That world is gone, and it’s not coming back. In short, the implicit social contract that once bound employers, families and government has unraveled, and nothing has taken its place. This unraveling has taken different forms in different areas. In metropolitan America, it’s seen in rising income volatility and the disconnect between wages and the skyrocketing costs of housing, health care and education. In rural and small-town America, the loss of productive employment looms larger. But what I’ve called the “great risk shift” is more or less universal for all Americans. Source: "The Economy Is Strong. So Why Do So Many Americans Still Feel at Risk?" By Jacob S. Hacker - NY Times - 5/21/2019 |
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