September 9, 2020 Issue, Page 4 of 8

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Page 4 The Elk City News, Elk City, Oklahoma Wednesday, September 9, 2020 Point: Workplace transformation will Opinion Page “ElkCituNews affect everyone, even labor unions Serving Western Oklahoma since 1901 With biomedical By Sean Higgins, Inside- been forced to try it or other ployers, since they can more There are 8.4 million people Sources.com alternate education models. easily switch to another job. who are working only part The Labor Day holiday Some parents will prefer the In schools, even a mod- research, dates back to the early 20th alternatives, meaning small- century and envisioned as er classes and fewer teachers est decline in class size will time, more than twice what it likely have a huge effect on was in February. More than taxpayers are a public celebration of “the at traditional schools. Doc- strength and esprit de corps tors learned how to practice teachers unions, since this 7 million cite “lack work or will cut down the number of business conditions” as the of the trade and labor orga- telemedicine, when possible, getting a great deal teachers. Union leaders were nizations” of the community. limiting their need for offic- already struggling to main- reason they are part-timers. This year’s commemo- es and support staff. And so tain their numbers in the pre- Businesses large and small By Kristen Osenga ration may have seemed on, across the economy. COVID-19 workplace. alike have closed, taking Gilead Sciences’ novel drug remdesivir has shown im- strained with social distanc- The growth in the so- That’s “creative destruc- mense promise for treating coronavirus. Yet every time a ing and much uncertainty tion” happening, and it’s a called gig economy, now jobs with them. company develops a promising drug, some policymakers about the future of jobs and necessary if sometimes pain- accelerated, will be a par- Meanwhile, the govern- call for the government to take control of the compound in opportunity, but the situation ful sort of change. We must ticular problem for unions. ment has been paying large question. is less dire than feared at the cope and adjust. Instead of Gig workers are typically With remdesivir, critics argue that the government start of the COVID-19 crisis. being clustered together in hired as contractors and, unemployment stipends for helped pay for some of its development, and so “taxpay- Americans are resilient a workplace, more of us therefore, not legally organ- the better part of the year, ers shouldn’t pay twice” -- once to help develop the drug and again to buy it when it comes to market. These critics and are finding ways to cope. will be independent actors, izable by unions. That’s why with the main debate in Con- mislead the public, specifically regarding remdesivir and We should all take pride in providing valuable services unions have been fighting that. It’s also possible the from home. a rearguard effort to force gress over just how large more generally, and more dangerously, regarding govern- ment support of scientific research. disruption will have some One of the great banes of companies to classify those those benefits should be. At It is true that government researchers helped identify positive side effects, like workers - commuting - will workers as employees, most least the benefits don’t ap- remdesivir from among a batch of potential antiviral com- shaking up the status quo re- decline as a concern. Fewer notably through California’s pounds that Gilead had invented and patented. But as a se- pear to have eroded Ameri- garding labor unions. people will need to leave AB 5 law. nior U.S. Army lawyer recently explained, “testing a com- It is unlikely work life will their home, and those who Unfortunately, cracking cans’ work ethic too much: pound” doesn’t make the government “a joint inventor of the compound.” revert to the way it was be- must will find streets less down on companies like Employment numbers have This distinction is lost on those who argue for the gov- fore the COVID-19 crisis. crowded. Parents who once Uber and Lyft simultaneous- jumped every time people ernment to assert ownership rights over pharmaceuticals. Many workers have learned saw their children for only a ly curtailed the work of other Institutions like the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to clock in from home - and few hours a day will now be freelance professions, too, have been given the oppor- provide valuable support to private pharmaceutical re- found they prefer it. Big more often present. causing considerable blow- tunity to work. Right now, searchers. That work is important, but it is not the same as companies are rethinking What will all this change back against AB 5. Uber and allowing Americans to get inventing and commercializing novel compounds. The or- large offices now that they mean for labor unions, a Lyft have threatened to stop ganization that does the most legwork to invent a new drug back to work is still the best gets the patent. While the public sector contributed directly know workers can do things prominent workforce influ- operating in the Golden State or indirectly to nearly half of new FDA-approved drugs remotely. Service-oriented encer for more than a cen- altogether if the law survives thing we can do for them, from 1988-2005, fewer than 10 percent were patented by a businesses like restaurants tury? The shift away from coming battles in court and particularly in this altered government entity, per a 2011 Health Affairs study. have switched over to de- a traditional workplace at the ballot box. It is hoped world we find ourselves, Tellingly, of all the drugs in that study, the ones with pub- livery as the primary means eliminates one of the main California’s misfortunes will lic-sector patents accounted for just 2.7 percent of sales. of reaching customers. City ways organizing was accom- deter other states from im- where work as we knew it is That indicates the government was most involved in the populations will thin if of- plished: employees talking posing such a draconian law. changing rapidly. drugs with the lowest commercial potential. As it should, fices go empty, and the an- to one another. Workers will Either way, the road ahead the government steps in to fill gaps and to play the biggest Sean Higgins is a re- cillary businesses that relied be less inclined to see them- will be difficult for many role when the market for a drug is small and companies search fellow with the Com- may not have incentive to innovate. on the white-collar workers selves as members of a col- people. The unemployment Still, some have argued that any amount of public fund- - like dry cleaners, delis and lective if they don’t actually rate stands at 10.2%, twice petitive Enterprise Institute, ing for a drug justifies the government stepping in -- either parking lots - will thin out, see fellow workers on a dai- what it was when President a free market public policy to set an “equitable” price or take ownership outright. But as well. ly basis. Individual workersDonald Trump took office that’s like arguing a novel should belong to the government Parents who hadn’t con- will feel more empowered to and nearly three times what organization. He wrote this and be free to the public because a public school teacher sidered home schooling have make demands of their em- it was at this point last year. for InsideSources.com. taught the author how to write. The federal government supports basic research at uni- Counterpoint: What is our versities and nonprofit labs across the country. When this work yields a critical insight -- one that’s novel, promising, and with a potential commercial application -- the scien- tists involved typically seek a patent to protect their dis- government doing to labor? covery and private capital to fund serious, applied research and development. When new treatments are successful, drug companies make money because we, through insurance, buy those drugs to keep us, or make us, healthy. The government then By Mark Weisbrot, In- vember. After all, millions as much as two-thirds. But tribute some of this money taxes those profits and invests some of that tax money into sideSources.com of unemployed Republicans the fact that the Republicans to the states, as well as to new research. America has lost more lost most of their income as could not agree among them- thousands of local govern- Far from “paying twice,” we are getting a great bargain than 12 million jobs in the a result of what their politi- selves on the magnitude of ments that also provide ser- from government spending on basic research. The Milken last six months. An estimated cal party wanted, and did. the pain to be inflicted pretty vices. The cost to our econ- Institute estimates that the long-term boost to total eco- 12 million people have lost The Democratic-con- much eliminated the chance omy, and Americans present nomic output could be as high as $3.20 for every dollar the their employer-sponsored trolled House passed a $3 of a negotiated solution. and future, of not providing NIH invests in biopharmaceutical research. health insurance during the trillion bill in May, which The biggest stumbling these funds is much greater We don’t yet know how important remdesivir will be in worst pandemic in a century. extended the federal unem- block in the negotiations was than the debt incurred. the fight against coronavirus. Hopefully, for all our sakes, Tens of millions report not ployment benefits through over money for the states State governments are re- one or more of the hundreds of novel drugs currently in de- having enough to eat. Jan. 31. Senate Republicans and cities/local__govern- sponsible for much of the velopment or trials will prove hugely effective. If and when But one month ago, tens waited until July 27 - just ments. McConnell himself health care needs that have they do, we'd do well to remember the role that private of millions of unemployed four days before the expira- had come under fire for re- increased during the pan- enterprise played in getting us there. Kristen Osenga is the Austin E. Owen Research Scholar Americans lost a lifeline tion of the unemployment jecting calls for assistance to demic. They also need addi- & Professor of Law at the University of Richmond School that, for many, had been pay- benefits, before responding state and local governments, tional money for education of Law. ing their bills for months: a with their own proposal. suggesting instead that states infrastructure as much of it $600 weekly federal unem- This all but guaranteed that should consider going bank- moves online. Not to men- ployment insurance benefit the benefits would expire. mupt. The House bill allo- tion the need to preserve that Congress failed to re- Senate Majority Leader cated about $900 billion, but essential services such as new at the end of July. Mitch McConnell acknowl- Republicans weren’t having transportation, water and How can this happen in a edged on July 29 that about it. This funding has over- sanitation. Also, layoffs at democracy? This is a ques- 20 Republicans _ senators whelming support among state and local governments tion that everyone who didn’t want any new legisla- economists, because it is so will disproportionately harm works for a living - or would tion at all. obviously necessary. States Black workers. like to do so if they could Republican senators re- are losing hundreds of bil- Who would want to be find a job - might want to peatedly expressed worries lions of dollars of revenue forcing layoffs - potentially consider during this week that the unemployment ben- from taxes during this deep totaling millions at the state when we celebrate Labor efits created a “disincentive recession. Unlike the federal and local level - during a de- Day. to work.” But economists government, they have laws pression and pandemic? Ask Polls indicate that Demo- have found no evidence of that prohibit them from run- Sen. McConnell and Donald cratic voters tend to blame this; on the contrary, millions ning budget deficits and bor- Trump. Republicans, and vice versa, of workers who were receiv- rowing during a recession. Mark Weisbrot is co-di- for the failure to reach an ing these benefits returned to By contrast, the federal rector of the Center for Eco- the editor to agreement to extend these work in May through July, government can currently nomic and Policy Research benefits. But if the facts of and there are more than 11 borrow at zero interest rates in Washington, D.C. He is this political disaster were million more workers un- - actually negative interest the author of ‘Failed: What [email protected] more widely known and un- derstood, Republicans could employed than there are job openings. rates if we take inflation into account. So, it makes obvi- the ‘Experts’ Got Wrong About the Global Econo- lose not only the presidency Other Republicans wanted ous economic sense for the my.” He wrote this for In- but also the Senate in No- to cut the federal benefit by federal government to dis- sideSources.com.