One common story I have been hearing recently is how the CERB is working against businesses trying to get employees back to work because of the simple fact that people can stay home and collect $2000. It doesn’t make sense for them to leave the house and increase odds of contracting the virus where at the same time they may actually earn less money. For example, working to earn $1250 a month which is less than the CERB.
But one comment from a business for this example was how they normally relied heavily on teenagers working part-time to fill in a lot of roles. They would mostly only earn maybe $500 a month. But because of the CERB it’s like winning the lottery in their cases as they get paid way more for not doing anything. It kind of made me wonder, if I was a teenager again and took the CERB what would I do in that scenario with the money?
I think honestly I actually would try and capitalize on it where $2000 gives me a lot of flexibility to try and work without feeling like I have to but instead it’s dumb not to make something out of it. For example, one of my first biggest investments while saving up was I bought my own computer. This gave me the ability to work on my computer and Internet related skills that ultimately turned out as a valuable asset to make money.
With so many people demanding more digital solutions I would probably try and invest in my education on these types of fields. I would still attempt to find work that I could do part time as the limit is $1000 before you can’t get the CERB. So ideally as a teenager that wouldn’t be bad to get about $3000 a month. But skill wise I would have probably invested in other items like a very good camera and learn how to use various digital suites since so many people need things like video solutions now.
Now of course you can say the CERB isn’t meant for like teenagers living with their parents even if they did lose their jobs due to COVID-19. But to me these are one of those situations where if you qualify then it really is no different in many ways than people who qualify for tax benefits and take advantage of it to reduce their yearly taxes. I think one of the important thing is if you are a teenager collecting CERB then at least be responsible and do something with it to where you can contribute something positive to the world while potentially creating an income stream to then self-support yourself in the future. That’s what I would be thinking if I was a teenager in this circumstance.