Peter Cooper — Increased Unemployment Benefits Can Be a Win Win

In our present-day societies, which neglect to guarantee either full employment or an unconditional income, unemployment benefits are a necessary safety net. Having evolved an economic system in which most of us must offer to work for a wage or salary to get by, majorities routinely vote for politicians who promise to make this impossible for a sizable portion of the workforce at any given time. Despite the current necessity for unemployment benefits, prevailing attitudes toward the policy seem largely hostile. Opposition does not solely – or even mainly – come from the powerful and wealthy. Many members of the working class (who, at least until recently, have deluded themselves into imagining they are "middle class") appear to be hostile to benefit payments as well. They are hostile, that is, until they themselves need them, in which case their new-found altruism lasts for about as long as their jobless episode. A recent study* indicating that winning the lottery significantly influences winners' political views, with one-fifth converting to conservatism pronto, may partly explain the prevalence of what is clearly intended to be self-interested behavior. The operative word is "intended". Such people are trying to look out for number one, yet are mostly too clueless even to pull that off.

"Such people are trying to look out for number one, yet are mostly too clueless even to pull that off." The driving force behind neoliberalism, which is based on duping the rubes. The basis is self-interest, and narrow self-interest is based on relative position, so that the greater the equality, the less the incentive to "succeed" (read "exceed"). For there to be rich, there must also be poor. There's a reason we don't have win-win. For many, many people "winning" means others losing.

heteconomist.com
Increased Unemployment Benefits Can Be a Win Win
Peter Cooper