No, ‘Socialism’ Isn’t Making Americans Lazy – 7/11/2023 – Paul Krugman

Bernie Marcus, co-founder of Home Depot (large home improvement and home improvement store), had some negative things to say about his fellow Americans in an interview last December.

“Socialism” destroyed the work ethic, he declared. “Nobody works. Nobody cares. ‘Just give it to me. Send me money. I don’t want to work—I’m too lazy, I’m too fat, I’m too dumb.’

You are naive if you think his opinion is exceptional. No doubt rich men are constantly saying similar things in country clubs across the United States. More importantly, conservative politicians are obsessed with the idea that government aid is making Americans lazy, which is why they keep trying to impose a work requirement on programs like Medicaid and food stamps, despite overwhelming evidence that such requirements do not promote work, but create bureaucratic barriers that deny help to those who really need it.

I am under no illusion that facts will change these people’s minds. But everyone else should know that last year we conducted a major test of the proposition that Americans have become lazy. And it turns out not.

In the face of the opportunities created by a full-employment economy—arguably the first full-employment economy we’ve had in nearly a quarter of a century—Americans are actually willing to work. In fact, they are more willing to work than most people realized, even optimists. And the robustness of the American work ethic has huge policy implications.

Before getting into numbers, a reminder about numbers. The US has an aging population, which means that, all else being equal, we should be seeing a downward trend in the share of adults still working. Indeed, the overall labor force participation rate — the percentage of adults working or actively looking for work — is slightly lower now than it was on the eve of the Covid-19 pandemic.

But that decline was predictable and predicted, for example, in pre-pandemic projections by the Congressional Budget Office. And current workforce participation is actually higher than the agency expected — which is truly remarkable given that Covid has pushed some workers into early retirement, while prolonged Covid may have left significant numbers of workers with persistent disabilities. .

One way to look beyond demographic changes is to focus on the labor force participation of Americans in their early working years, which is higher today than it was 20 years ago. Bobby Kogan of the Center for American Progress reports that, if you adjust for age and gender, overall US employment is now at its highest level in history—again, despite the lingering effects of the pandemic.

So, no more claims that big government has made Americans lazy, or even talk of a “great resignation.” Americans are working harder than ever.

Where do these additional workers come from? One answer is that, in a tight labor market, employers are more willing to accept marginalized groups, many of whom are perfectly capable of productive employment. We’ve seen, for example, a dramatic increase in employment among Americans with disabilities.

We have also seen an increase in the number of foreign-born workers. Whatever people like Ron DeSantis may think, immigrants are a huge asset to the US economy: They tend to be of working age and highly motivated. Indeed, DeSantis’ anti-immigration policies are already having a visible adverse effect on Florida’s economy.

So what does America’s extraordinary success in getting people back to work tell us, other than the fact that we haven’t become lazy? One thing he tells us is that the slow recovery that followed the 2008 financial crisis — slow in large part because Very Serious People were obsessed with debt rather than jobs — denied jobs to millions of Americans who could and should be working. .

And recent job gains also make the “bidenomy” look a lot better than it did a year ago.

President Joe Biden began his term with a massive spending package that many say caused the economy to overheat, fueling inflation. There is probably considerable truth in that statement. But there were also claims that getting rid of excess inflation would take years of high unemployment. It turns out that, after all, inflation — including measures that try to eliminate temporary factors — has been decreasing, despite the high level of employment. Therefore, such claims seem less and less convincing.

While the buoyant economy may have temporarily increased inflation, it has also put Americans to work — not just those who lost jobs during the pandemic and its aftermath, but also some who previously couldn’t find jobs. It also produced especially high earnings for low-wage workers. If we manage to avoid a severe recession, many of these job gains are likely to persist.

The bottom line is that, no matter what grumpy rich men may say, Americans have not become lazy. On the contrary, they are willing, even eager, to take jobs if they are available. And while economic policy in recent years has been far from perfect, one thing it has done—to the great benefit of the nation—is give work a chance.

Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves

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