A Revolt Over Safety and Pay

America is relying too heavily on unemployment insurance for laid-off workers, they argue in an NYT Op-Ed, rather than government funding for companies to help them keep employees on payrolls, as in Europe. But the academics, who made their name studying inequality and taxes, don’t stop there.

• Beyond wages, the government should also cover companies’ rent, utilities, maintenance and other essential costs.

• “Covidcare for All” would pay for medical treatments for Covid-19, for all residents, to halt the spread of the illness.

How to pay for it? On top of the $2 trillion (give or take) already allocated by various stimulus bills, the economists suggest raising additional aid by resurrecting a crisis-fighting fiscal measure: a tax on “excessive profits.”

• The tax would ensure that no company could “benefit outrageously from a situation in which the masses suffered,” they write. Others on the left have suggested similar proposals, so it could be a talking point if — or when — more stimulus is discussed.

• In the 1940s, the U.S. government imposed steep, temporary taxes on profits above a certain rate of return, so that companies that benefited from the war effort wouldn’t have a leg up on companies that suffered.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/31/business/dealbook/coronavirus-workers-strike.html