There's a split on the value of work

There is value in hard work. Not just monetary value, but actual value in the satisfaction of a hard day's work. Those who enjoy their jobs know this. 

The debate over this $300 per-week in extra unemployment benefits comes down to how you view work. Those who see the dignity and value of a job want Wisconsin to rollback the benefits. Those who have no problem with being on, and staying on, the government dole want to keep the benefits. 

Republicans at the Wisconsin Capitol yesterday introduced a plan to push the state out of the enhanced benefit program. 

Compare the story I wrote to the story from the Journal Sentinel. 

At The Center Square:

The enhanced federal unemployment benefits in Wisconsin are worth an extra $300 a week, every week, until at least September. Republican lawmakers and business owners in the state say they simply can’t compete with that. 

“We’re no longer competing with other employers, we’re no longer competing with Illinois, we’re no longer competing with Iowa, we’re competing with the couch,” Sen. Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, said a local boss told him that last week. 

Republicans at the Wisconsin Capitol on Tuesday introduced legislation to end the federal unemployment enhancers in the state. Those enhancers guarantee people an extra $300 a-week. Marklein says when you add that to the roughly $300 a-week in Wisconsin benefits, you get over $600 a week. That comes to over $16 an-hour. 

“This is not a problem where the [private sector] wages are not keeping-up,” Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester said Tuesday. “We certainly see the benefits of staying home, where you make $16.75 an-hour, for being at home.”

The Journal Sentinel:

Top Republican lawmakers are proposing to end Wisconsin's participation in federal programs that provide more unemployment benefits to residents who lost work due to the coronavirus pandemic in an effort to boost the number of workers in the state.  

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Joint Finance Committee co-chairman Sen. Howard Marklein proposed legislation Tuesday that would stop paying an additional $300 per week in unemployment benefits, among other pandemic-related benefits. 

"The government needs to quit competing with our local employers. We need a reset here," Marklein said at a press conference in the state Capitol. 

"Wisconsin Republicans want you to take whatever job there is, regardless of pay/benefits/working conditions. Trying to end $300 Pandemic UI 4 months early is about one thing — keeping wages low by forcing people to work for less than what they're worth," Sen. Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee, tweeted on Tuesday. 

The tone is different.

Democrats used to be the party of the working man and the working woman. For years, populist Democrats would say the greatest way to improve someone’s life is with a J O B. Now? It seems Democrats, and their enablers in the big newsrooms, are perfectly content to pay people to stay at home. Pay people to do nothing. Pay people to give-up their dignity and self worth. 

Jobs do all of that. But for too many people they seem willing to trade it all for an extra $300 a week. 

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