Marty Chen Empower Informal Workers

Co-founder and Senior Advisor @WIEGOGlobal and Faculty, Harvard Kennedy School. Worked first half of her career in Bangladesh and India. Grew up in India.

[Marty Chen Empower Informal Workers @MartyChen16]

Two Pandemics - In the US, workers in low-wage jobs are quitting as the demand for workers in higher-wage jobs increases. But in developing countries, most workers do not have that option and continue in low-wage jobs or low-end self-employment.

[Marty Chen Empower Informal Workers @MartyChen16]

Wouldn't it be nice if in 2022, we would give more power to the working poor who provided essential goods and services to all of us in 2020 and 2021. Let's spread power and wealth - as a token of our appreciation of the working poor.

[Marty Chen Empower Informal Workers @MartyChen16]

"Aristotle called democracy “the rule of the poor,” and he was onto something. Democracy, when it works, puts the ultimate political power in the hands of the people who work, worry and wish they could promise their loved ones more than they can." Op Ed in New York Times

[Marty Chen Empower Informal Workers @MartyChen16]

Let's hope that 2022 is better for the working poor than 2021
https://t.co/c9sMTM7xea
This will require a moral reset by corporate and shareholder capitalists who did very well financially during 2021

[Marty Chen Empower Informal Workers @MartyChen16]

The Street Vendor Project in New York City -
"2021 has been a rollercoaster year for street vendors, reaching the highest highs by passing historic legislative wins and sinking low with sustained economic difficulties and police harassment."
Visit https://t.co/5gS9POoN5f

[Marty Chen Empower Informal Workers @MartyChen16]

Consider the perspective of mainstream economics that all informal workers are avoiding taxation. But most informal workers earn less than the threshold for corporate or personal income tax and most pay VAT on supplies, operating fees, fines or bribes and get nothing in return.

[Marty Chen Empower Informal Workers @MartyChen16]

Rethinking Economics - The IMF is calling for rethinking economics: see the latest issue of Finance and Development Not only economic policies but also economic fundamentals and orthodoxies need to be rethought.

[Marty Chen Empower Informal Workers @MartyChen16]

Consider the perspective of mainstream economics on labor markets as composed primarily of formal wage employment. Yet in developing and emerging economies most workers are self-employed. The mainstream notion of labor supply and demand do not work for the self-employed.

[Marty Chen Empower Informal Workers @MartyChen16]

"One measure of this distress is the rise in applications for rural jobs from a government programme that provides for 100 days of make-work support annually. These applications are up more than 60 per cent from pre-Covid levels, according to Mookim. "

[Marty Chen Empower Informal Workers @MartyChen16]

India’s Bouyant Economy Masks Vulnerabilities -
https://t.co/xW1Qz86Cop

“But the remainder inhabit the more precarious world of the informal economy, where job losses, declining income and reduced consumption in the wake of the pandemic are far more prevalent."

[Marty Chen Empower Informal Workers @MartyChen16]

“About 40 per cent of Indians can’t afford to even buy a packet of biscuits,” says Chakraborty — let alone a two-wheeled vehicle.

[Marty Chen Empower Informal Workers @MartyChen16]

“About 40 per cent of Indians can’t afford to even buy a packet of biscuits,” says Chakraborty — let alone a two-wheeled vehicle."

[Marty Chen Empower Informal Workers @MartyChen16]

For the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic recession on home-based workers, domestic workers, street vendors and waste pickers in 11 cities around the world in both 2020 and 2021, see:
https://t.co/rttoTkKlgp

[Marty Chen Empower Informal Workers @MartyChen16]

Broken Supply Chains - While large corporations worry about the flow of goods and services in their supply chains, they pay little, if any, attention to the workers in their supply chains. Many home-based workers in supply chains are unable to earn due to lack of work orders.

[Marty Chen Empower Informal Workers @MartyChen16]

Meanwhile, Amazon, other retail platforms and many gig platforms and shareholders have enjoyed record profits. This growing inequality was brazenly and outrageously illustrated by the billionaires flying into space while the working poor struggle to survive.

[Marty Chen Empower Informal Workers @MartyChen16]

Two Pandemics - With the new waves and variant of the virus, it's important to keep a focus on the economic impacts of the on-going pandemic recession and to highlight that there are economic winners and losers. T

[Marty Chen Empower Informal Workers @MartyChen16]

There are two main groups of home-based workers. The new home-based workers who began working remotely during the pandemic. And the old home-based workers who produce goods for supply chains which have cancelled or reduced orders.