LETTER: High jobless benefits force businesses to compete for employees

During the Great Depression President Herbert Hoover provided tax incentives to the wealthy to stimulate the economy. It failed.

That prompted this observation from Will Rogers in 1932: “The money was all appropriated for the top in the hopes that it would trickle down to the needy. Mr. Hoover didn’t know that money trickled up. Give it to the people at the bottom and the people at the top will have it before night, anyhow. But it will at least have passed through the poor fellow’s hands.”

Presidents Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump all provided tax giveaways to the wealthy suggesting that, by doing so, it would stimulate the economy and create jobs. Those attempts failed, too.

This will be the first time that we test Will Rogers’ theory. The financial incentives were given to the middle class under President Joe Biden. They now have money, and there is huge pent-up demand for a vast array of products — an economic boom is in the making.

Now, after the lull of the pandemic, businesses need to hire up to meet that demand, and they’re finding that people are making more money on unemployment than they currently pay. Eleven red-state governors have solved that problem by cutting the federal unemployment benefit and forcing people back to low-paying jobs. Blue states are taking no such action.

When you actually care about your constituents, you force businesses to compete for employees. Business and industry know what is about to happen and will offer better pay, but only if they’re forced to do so.