MUNCIE, Ind.–You may have heard about the Trump administration’s consideration of the idea to give every working, or now non-working American a check for $1,000. Ball State Economics Prof. Michael Hicks says that would help, but it would cost over one trillion dollars that would ultimately have to come from next year’s tax returns from “more affluent” taxpayers.
Hicks said it’s just one step needed to help the U.S. economy as the nation battles the COVID-19 pandemic. He said the goal is to make a recovery easier and ensure that we still have the same small businesses able to operate in four months.
“The U.S. has 2.6 million waiters and waitresses, nearly all of whom will be unemployed by Friday,” said Hicks, director of Ball State’s Center for Business and Economic Research (CBER). “The April 3 jobs report will be the single worst monthly job report in U.S. history. The record is 1.96 million job losses in September, 1945, right after V-J Day.”
He said the $1,000 checks would go directly to people who are suffering because the attempt to stop the spread of the coronavirus shut down their areas of employment.
“A payroll tax cut will do nothing for them. I don’t know if $1,000 a month is the right amount, but I know it’ll take six to eight weeks to implement, so taking a couple months to figure out if the right number is $747.505245 or $1,651.40934 per person would be a breathtaking mistake. I also know we will need to recover some of this stimulus money through a progressive tax in the future. I’d be fine with that, but let us debate that when the crisis has passed.”
Hicks said the money, for now, would be cash printed by the Treasury, with a future goal being to find out how to pay for it.
Hicks’ research team believes that 1 in 6 American will be hurt by social distancing.
“Occupational Exposure to Social Distancing: A Preliminary Analysis Using O*NET Data,” an analysis by Ball State’s Center for Business and Economic Research (CBER), found that there are about 28 million jobs involving high levels of physical proximity with others and working with others. These jobs pay an average of $32,774 per year.
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