The Effects of Unstable Income With Special Guest Martha Lawton

On episode 84, we welcome back Martha Lawton to discuss the how the pandemic worsened social mobility and exacerbated unstable incomes.

The pandemic exposed the flaws in the social safety nets of the US and the UK and challenged myths about “the welfare queen.” Some economists tell us that people are looking for excuses not to work, when they’re more likely searching for ways to avoid accepting handouts.

We need to fix our safety net and make it easier for recipients to benefit from the system they paid into, and we need to help people challenge toxic mindsets that tell them they’re inferior for being unemployed and needing help.

Martha Lawton has been helping people to improve their financial well-being for 15 years. She’s facilitated hundreds of workshops and helped thousands of people think more clearly about their finances. Martha is the host of the Squanderlust podcast, a show that covers what it means to be good (or bad) with money and the emotional factors at play in financial decision-making.

Topics discussed with Martha Lawton

• The gig economy and how it pits us against one another
• The beliefs and cognitive distortions of welfare recipients
• The emotional effects of poverty, the barriers to accessing the social safety net
• Why people more often decline rather than accept entitlement benefits
• Economists’ misconception of the average spender
• Why economic growth stems from the bottom rather than trickling down from the top
• Advice for policy makers to support struggling economies