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ignoring the fact that we are at record levels of federal debt, how does a one time "stimulus" check to everyone earning less than $75k help:
1. those that are unemployed? $600 will barely cover rent. what they need is a sustained income source.
2. those that still have jobs. they're not in dire need of a stimulus. many are just going to spend in on amazon or robinhood or something where the proceeds are not going to stimulate local economy. maybe some will pay down some debt or put it into savings.
3. SMB owners. people just are not going out to shop/dine/entertainment venues. esp when laws are preventing restaurants from dining in, in certain locales.
this measure just screams doing something for the sake of appearing to care. it's not well thought out at all, just like the original $1200 one (that went to many deceased).
I know of quite a few elderly low & income clients at our volunteer tax service who will be glad to get that $600.
Unless people personally volunteer in a program for at needs people in their community they don't have a clue to the suffering that is out there within a few miles of their homes. It is all too easy for some to make statements about waste or system cheats, to make them selves feel better. After all they could never be in such a situation. And while waste and some fraud does exist, it is small compared to the real need. These people are our invisible neighbors, look at your local news and see the sorts of people in the food lines for the first time and ask your self if the program just passed is something to make people feel good.
We see quite a few people who are living on the edge be it for heat in the winter, food, medications decent housing. They are the ones that fall through the systems cracks or minimum thresholds and many don't qualify for help. They are not lazy, druggies, cheats, many worked all their lives to get bankrupted by illness, plant closures or in the case of many women taking care of small children or grandchildren being saddled with a POS of a ex who won't pay child support but has plenty of money for beer and cigs.
Go volunteer somewhere, your help is badly needed and will be for some time.
I'm not debating or downplaying the need for financial aid.
if anything, I'm saying a 1 time check is not enough for the needy, and too much for those that don't need it.
You don’t appear to understand how stimulus works. It’s not designed as a full income replacement. It’s designed to...stimulate. If people are out shopping or spending money on food, for example, then there’s demand for those industries to create employment and provide income. People blow “free” money. That’s spurring transactions and velocity of money.
Yes, it will make a difference. Take the road I live on. There’s dozens of houses on each side. Hundreds of children. You don’t think pouring literally hundreds of thousands just onto one street makes a difference?
Yes. OP you are thinking in terms of singles. One check here, one there. The real "effect" is created by the ripples, through multiplication! If/when everyone in some town spends those checks the money spreads.
You don’t appear to understand how stimulus works. It’s not designed as a full income replacement. It’s designed to...stimulate. If people are out shopping or spending money on food, for example, then there’s demand for those industries to create employment and provide income. People blow “free” money. That’s spurring transactions and velocity of money.
It’s the same reason the stimulus goes to a wide range of incomes. Someone might use it for rent or groceries...or someone else might go on a hotel trip when things get safer and employ hotel workers.
Yes, it will make a difference. Take the road I live on. There’s dozens of houses on each side. Hundreds of children. You don’t think pouring literally hundreds of thousands just onto one street makes a difference?
And immaterial and irrelevant number of amounts were paid to “dead people”. I’m sure it gets corrected with their final tax filing. The fact is, the money needed to go out fast so they used tax filings filed under penalty of perjury. Speed was more important than 100% accuracy. Just like a fire hose might miss some water while trying to put out a raging inferno. You’re lamenting over droplets of water.
what you're describing is an ECONOMY.
something that a 1 time check is not going to create.
what's needed to sustain an economy is constant productivity which allows you to earn a sustained income to be able to barter and trade with other productive members in society for their goods/services.
Last edited by blahblahyoutoo; 12-22-2020 at 12:33 PM..
In Hawaii, everyone receiving Unemployment got a one-time $500 gift card that could only be spent at Hawaii's restaurants. It was helpful in bringing restaurant workers back to work, and helped restaurants hang on. They were valid for 60 days.
$75 million Cares dollars potentially spent. No doubt it helped with depression as well.
I hear Canada is giving out $2,000 a month for the duration of the pandemic.
That would actually get folks through this. Not sure what a one-time $600 is gonna do. Pretty heartless.
Lots of political cronies getting enriched though.
You’re looking at only one piece of the package in isolation. For example, there’s also $300 per week federal unemployment. Previously student loans were stopped as well.
I plan to send a $600 check to Feeding America. They can feed a lot of folks with it.
You can also feed people by spending the $600 on yourself. Afterall, you are still just changing the hand that money is in. Only difference is you get some utility back.
If you eat at restaurant, you feed the owners, chefs by buying their food, and servers through tips.
what you're describing is an ECONOMY.
something that a 1 time check is not going to create.
what's needed to sustain an economy is constant productivity which allows you to earn a sustained income to be able to barter and trade with other productive members in society for their goods/services.
No, I’m describing a stimulus payment. Note, the singularity of it.
Stimulus checks are designed to protect the rest of the economy because it’s cheaper than waiting until it’s been damaged too much. It’s akin to preventative maintenance on plant equipment.
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