Retiring
US Sen. Phil Gramm (R-TX) complained that “socialist governments all over the
planet” were trying to avoid doing this and now the US is going to, but he
voted for it anyway. Ouch. Reality bites. -
Karen
Trade
Bill To Help Laid-Off Workers: Victims
of Imports Win Added Benefits
EXCERPTs:
The
new benefits emerged as part of a grand bargain between free-traders and those
who argue that free trade should be coupled with greater efforts to help those
it hurts.
…Like
most worker retraining programs, trade adjustment assistance has a spotty
record in moving the unemployed into good jobs. A General Accounting Office study in 2000 cited
Labor Department data indicating that three-quarters of those who left local
training programs in fiscal 1999 found jobs, but found that only 56 percent of
those workers earned 80 percent or more of their previous
wages.
That
is why the bill includes the wage-insurance provision, which compensates
laid-off workers for half of their lost wages (with a maximum of $10,000 over
two years) if they take a job paying less than they were making before. The
program applies only to workers over age
50, who are least likely to gain from
retraining.
"This
pays people when they get a new job, and it's at the new job where they get
the best training, not at some artificial training program," said Litan, who proposed the idea 20 years
ago.
Wage
insurance, like the health-insurance tax credit, could easily be made
available more broadly, he said.
"I
originally advocated it just for workers displaced by trade, but as I talked
to people, they persuaded me that if it's such a good idea, it ought to be
expanded to everybody," Litan said. "There's no good or moral reason to
restrict it."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38157-2002Aug2.html
