Wednesday
I’ve been pondering on the fact that it is only a few more months till September. That is when the Australian Job Keeper hand-out to employees finishes. What then? Unemployment, a lot of it is the obvious answer.
I have already written at length (here, here, here and here – and many other articles) on the destruction of the economy by the government’s panicked reaction to the Wuhan Virus.
A friend rang from the UK yesterday. He had the interesting idea that Job Keeper will morph into a Universal Basic Income (UBI). His logic was that they have no choice if they are to (appear to) avoid massive unemployment due to their witless actions. In a ghastly way, it makes sense. It can be presented to the electorate as a ‘progressive’ foray into the future.
If the shutdown has not already been sufficient to bring on the debt collapse, UBI will be.
I do hope that he is wrong, though I suspect that he could be spot on.