Fifty years ago today, the Ohio National Guard fired on Kent State University students as they protested against the Vietnam War. Four students were killed. Nine were injured. The incident on May 4, 1970, now known as the Kent State massacre, dramatically changed the nation.
It prompted a nationwide student strike that forced hundreds of colleges and universities to shut down. Life magazine and Newsweek dedicated cover stories to the incident. The New York Times famously showcased the now-iconic photograph of a young woman screaming as she knelt over the body of a Kent State student.
The shootings turned the tide of public opinion against the Vietnam War, and some political officials even argued that it played a role in the downfall of the Nixon administration. Today, the incident symbolizes the political and social divides brought on by the Vietnam War.
New York, New Jersey, California, Massachusetts, and Connecticut are all states where $600 has relatively lower purchasing power and where COVID-19 has had the largest impact, from a public health and/or economic perspective. Meanwhile, other states severely hit by the pandemic reap a much higher purchasing power from $600, such as Ohio, Louisiana, Georgia, and Michigan. To further explore this discrepancy, let's compare Ohio and New York, the states from the table where $600 has the highest and lowest purchasing power, respectively. UI claimants in Ohio experience a 30 percent larger benefit from their UI supplement than claimants in New York. Take two workers who became eligible to receive UI benefits the first week of April4 and who will remain unemployed until July 31. Over the course of these four months (18 weeks) the purchasing power of an Ohio claimant's total UI supplements5 would equal $12,150 ($675 x 18), while that of a New York claimant's would equal $9,324 ($518 x 18), a difference of $2,826, which is over four times the nominal weekly amount of $600.
This comparison raises the question of whether the equal distribution of the $600 per week UI supplement is an equitable distribution across states. It raises the same question in response to the $1,200 relief checks being distributed to many households across the United States. Certainly, anyone receiving financial aid will be better off than they would be without it; but the argument could be made that individuals who face higher prices for housing, food, and other essentials should receive higher UI supplements, particularly those who face a "double jeopardy" with regard to higher prices and more severe pandemic conditions.
However, setting the uniform $600 per week supplement also has its advantages. First, the constant nominal amount of $600 invokes the notion that this is a fair policy; all UI claimants are receiving the exact same amount. Additionally, having a flat supplement amount likely expedites the transfer of benefits to unemployed workers, many of whom need the aid as soon as possible.6 Moreover, the CARES Act is a large and detailed piece of legislation that needed to be passed quickly to provide relief to many factions of the economy; setting the UI supplement to a uniform amount may have mitigated debate surrounding the appropriate amount from region to region, enabling the act to be passed in short order.
The architect of the award winning but controversial Boston City Hall passed away from Coronavirus in late March.
Few buildings have been both praised and criticized as much as Boston City Hall. The building survived its first 50 years and is likely to be treasured for generations to come, now that people have come to accept this building despite its controversial concrete design.
