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For various reasons, I've found myself thinking a lot lately about how the entire American welfare state, or really lack thereof, is supposedly designed to encourage work, and yet our employment rate is total crap compared to the rest of the OECD (end of 2019 here)
This is sort of the inverse of the point @ezraklein made in his column today. Like, yeah we try to whip people into getting jobs in this country. But the end product is a completely mediocre employment rate.
And of course, the irony is that it's our unwillingness to build a modern welfare state, complete with the childcare and paid leave policies that have worked to increase in employment, that have fucked us.
Ah, I see Matt pre-empted me. https://twitter.com/MattBruenig/status/1362589939414818831?s=20
Btw, for those wondering, the share of Americans working part-time appears to be about average for the OECD. (It doesn't include us in its data set there, so I'm comparing to BLS numbers). So, nothing special there.
The one leg defenders of our system have to stand on is that American workers log more hours than almost anyone else. Which, great? I'm pretty sure we could keep that lead with a more generous welfare state.
Anyway, just needed to vent.
Anyway, just needed to vent.
