[beach43ofus]

Originally Posted by Igor Blevin

Every government program is ripe for fraud. It is far worse when government gives away money no questions asked.

Students are not asked "do you need this student loan for books or tuition?" No, it is a "how much do you want". If you want to fly around the world on that money, nobody even asks.

The PPP program was an epic disaster or fraud, waste, and abuse.

Government misalocates money and criminals take advantage of government inefficiency.

At the end of the day, the only control is to have a government so small that it can't come close to funding everything it wants to. Then it is force to be very stingy about what it funds. There will always be corruption, embezzlement, and graft but on a small sale. When the government controls monstrous trillions of dollars of the people's money, you get hundreds of billions of dollers in fraud and other crimes.

Welcome to America 2022. We went off the rails long before the 1960s, but the cost of corruption and incompetence has gone up 100 fold since then.

The early 1930's is where I think it went off the rails...the New Deal was the begining of the end:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Govern...ending_GDP.png

This is a 2018 chart, so doesnt even include the Trillions in stimulus. If that is added in, we are equaling the WW2 spending spike you see in the chart. Gov't used to spend ~10% of GDP, and today they are spending 50%, which is why wages cant grow, GDP growth has stagnated, and millions of private citizens are living paycheck to paycheck...the govt is eating 1/2 the pizza before the rest even sit down to the dinner table.

The average fed worker's total comp package is worth ~$150k, but in the private sector its ~$65k. Gov't is a parasite feeding upon the rest of us, & eventually it will kill its host...which is us!

[AngelaRetired]

They really need to figure out a way to prevent fraud. Way too many getting over on the system.

[MOforthewin]

Originally Posted by beach43ofus

The $ is coming from U.S. taxayers, China, Japan, (& other countries who hold our debt) & anyone who holds U.S. Treasuries. Some of it is Monopoly money that is printed out of thin air that devalues all the pre-existing dollars already in circulation.

It was supposed to be used by employers to cover payroll during covid, when employers couldn't make payroll, but some fraudsters took advantage of it...like the Florida man did....& Harvard University, for instance, who later returned some of it after being called out on it.

Most will never be caught, & some who are caught, will never be prosecuted to the full extent of the law...like those responsible at Harvard. Some politicians, & those w/ close ties to politicians exploited it as well....you can web search it if you really want to know which ones. We'll never know what % went to employees, who needed it the most, and what % wound up where it was never intended.

The lockdowns should have never taken place to begin with. They didn't in 1957 and 1918. My mom was around for the 1957 one and they didn't wear stupid mask or shut the schools down. But since the gubermint shut us down, including our governor, they had to do something to help people out such as unemployment and PPP.

PPP was total out of control though. Yes, give out some money, but not 2 million dollars or 50 million to companies that don't need it. In the legal cases of PPP loans many got much more money than they really even needed. It should been the bare minimums not a bunch of extra free ca$h.

Probably many businesses made more money on PPP loans than they'd make in 3 years.

Also, the guy featured in this story is a piece of garbage. He spent a bit of time in prison for robbing his college roommate. The guy is a total fraud. My question was how did he get a professional license? I thought you couldn't get licenses in FL if you're a felon.

But when he got out of jail he seems to been successful despite being scum. Here I am around his age, never been in trouble and have nowhere near the money.

Sad part is the PPP loan process was far easier than trying to file for unemployment.

[AngelaRetired]

The "dishonest" folks (does not have to be a felon) know the system and how to work around it to commit fraud. The "online" processing has not helped either. Very easy to set up "fake" profiles and with the "backlog" - folks are not been researched thoroughly = process applications quickly. As far as "lockdowns" we needed that in my opinion, but I totally "respect" your opinion.