Unemployment Benefits Crisis Shows Need for New Society

Now that the country’s joblessness is reaching astronomical levels, a crisis is developing in the unemployment insurance benefits program. Sixteen states are borrowing cash to pay benefits and this number is expected to double by year-end. The system is so taxed that hundreds of thousands of jobless people have waited months for checks. “Kenneth Kottwitz, a laid-off cabinet maker, waited three months for his benefits to arrive. He lost his apartment and moved to a homeless shelter,” said the New York Times.
Now a new stage of the crisis is developing. By year end, a new, huge wave of jobless — 1.5 million or more workers — will exhaust their benefits, with millions more to follow throughout 2010. These figures are in addition to the tens of thousands who have already used up their benefits. People are turning in droves to cash-strapped homeless shelters, food banks and social service agencies. Many jobless are asking, “What am I to do when my checks run out … starve?”
Congress is considering an extension of benefits for 13 weeks, but this is a drop in the bucket. What will they do as the crisis escalates? Not surprisingly, some business groups are already propagating the idea that extending benefits doesn’t work, “that people tend to not look for work.” This “blame the victim” mentality was criticized in a popular Depression era song called “Halleluiah, I’m a Bum.” The lyrics go:

“Why don’t you work like other folks do?”

“How the hell can I work when there’s no work to do?”

And, that’s the point, “there’s no work to do.” The jobs are gone. They’re not coming back. We’re at a fork in the road. The temporary “fixes” that have been used over the past 30 years to patch up the capitalist economy and keep it going no longer work. In the past, the system had room to expand. That era is over. Today, only fundamental change that addresses the underlying problem will get us out of this mess.
Here’s why. The basic problem is that under capitalism, the drive for greater profits forces companies to invest in technology in order to produce cheaper and undercut the competition. As a result, advancing technology is replacing workers permanently today. For example, the 800 robots to be installed in GM’s Lordstown plant in Ohio will produce more profitably for the corporation but with few workers. This process is being multiplied throughout the U.S. and world. As more workers compete for fewer jobs, wages fall for those who still have jobs and buying power shrinks, creating more unemployment. It’s a vicious cycle.
What can we do? We must force the government to provide unemployment compensation and every other necessity. At the same time, the situation makes clear that we absolutely can, and must, have a society where we don’t have to worry about selling ourselves in the labor market in order to eat. That new society is possible right now. We, the people, could own collectively what is today the productive property of the corporations. With this new technology in our hands, we could produce whatever we need, whenever we need it and distribute the products to all based on need, not money. Such a society could solicit the social contribution of each and every person. It’s time to think about real solutions.

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