Page 77 - COVID-19: The Great Reset

extreme example) due to political concerns about rising taxes,
calls for more spending (and therefore higher taxes) will get

louder, with a growing realization that “efficient management”
cannot compensate for underinvestment.

COVID-19 has also revealed yawning gaps in most welfare
systems. At first glance, the nations that reacted in the most
inclusive manner are those with an elaborate welfare system,

most notably the Scandinavian countries. To provide an example,
as early as March 2020, Norway guaranteed 80% of self-
employed workers’ average incomes (based on the tax returns of

the previous three years), while Denmark guaranteed 75%. At the
other end of the spectrum, the most market-oriented economies
played catch-up and showed indecisiveness in how to protect the
most vulnerable segments of the labour market, particularly the
gig workers, the independent contractors and on-call and

temporary workers whose employment consists of income-earning
activities that are outside the traditional employer–employee
relationship.

An important topic that may have a decisive impact on the new

social contract is sick leave. Economists tend to agree that the
absence of paid sick leave makes it harder to contain the spread
of an epidemic, the simple reason being that if employees are
denied access to it, they may be tempted or forced to go to work

while they are infected and thus spread the disease. This is
particularly true for low-income and service workers (the two often
go hand in hand). When the swine flu (H1N1) pandemic occurred
in 2009-2010, the American Public Health Association estimated

that around 7 million people were infected and an additional 1,500
died because contagious employees could not afford not to go to
work. Among the rich economies, only the US has a system that
leaves it at the discretion of employers to decide whether to

provide paid sick leave. In 2019, almost a quarter of all US
workers (about 40 million, largely concentrated in low-wage
positions) did not benefit from it. In March 2020, when the
pandemic started to rage in the US, President Trump signed into

law new legislation that temporarily required employers to provide
two weeks of sick leave plus family leave at partial pay, but only

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