BRIAN KANTOR: More welfare, less work — an unsurprising relationship
SA is caught in a Catch-22, where more welfare means increased taxes, which will slow job creation
An extraordinary feature of the SA economy is how large a proportion of the adult population — 58% or more than 22-million working-age people in early 2020 — reported no income from employment. The adult population has been growing faster than the numbers employed, and the participation rate in the economy has accordingly declined.
A large number of South Africans, including the great majority of those reporting no income, are also objectively poor. SA not only has an employment problem, it has a poverty problem. The difference between the living standards of those in formal jobs and those without work has widened significantly. The share of the remuneration in total value added has been maintained, despite the lack of growth in numbers employed...
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