Before this all started, the deal was already busted. You could be working and be desperately poor - relying on schools to feed your children and food banks and food stamps the rest of the time. You could be middle class and be poor - with no savings, no vacation, no new car, borrowing money for school. You could be upper middle class and be middle class - maybe just barely being able to afford a family home in a decent neighborhood or private school. Busted.
Now this crisis lays things all bare. Half the country has no money, living day to day. Now half of those people are going to be unemployed before this is over.
Anytime someone has brought up the crazy, insane idea of doing something about this everyone from Hillary Clinton to Mitch McConnell squawked and said "how ya gonna pay for it?" They are so folksy and wise - payin' for gum with couch change. And with the wisdom to know that it is impossible to redirect any of a $22 trillion dollar economy to the people who do all the work.
But now we are in crisis and our dysfunctional government quickly found two trillion dollars to pass around because this time, bankers and corporations are in trouble. Yes, just like in 2008 the same bankers and corporations that are still pressing their debtors and firing their employees.
And even worse than 2008, one in five people is unemployed today -and that number is even worse because we don't count he chronically unemployed - and what's happening on Wall Street? A recovery! Markets are up. There it is in a nutshell folks.
There have been two recent, small hangups with legislation. First, Republicans stopped things cold when they realized that some working poor were so poor while working that if they were not working and unemployed they might make just slightly more money. But those people are desperately poor while poor, so Republicans couldn't abide this scrap of dignity being passed around. Now the Democrats have stopped things defending a proposal to give first responders and other front line workers some real money for risking their lives to save the rest of us. But those people are poor while middle class, so Republicans won't abide this dignity being passed around either.
But everyone's getting those little checks, you say. Yes, and those are going right back to landlords and bankers and corporations, collectively the rich.
But small businesses are getting checks you say. Yes, again landlords. The money is just going back up. It is all just trickling up so the super rich don't have to do without the monthly rent from people who used to work.
So money doesn't exist but we can print it to prop up the status quo for just a few weeks. Even if you think these handouts are real charity, are you going to be able to show me any examples of poor folks, middle class folks, or small businesses coming out ahead after eight weeks? But how do you think big banks will fair? During the last recession, they used a much less generous bailout to run record profits.
What about generous billionaires, you might ask. They are giving quite a lot. They aren't actually and they have never been generous. Billionaires give less than the poor to charity both in total and as a percentage of their wealth. Go look it up. Billionaire are actually the stingiest group versus all the other classes. But they get a lot more press. Ironically, the poor give to things like the food banks they depend on. Those silly poor. Snark aside, I appreciate many of the efforts by billionaires. There are certainly some smart ones, doing some real good. But compare a billion here and a billion there (or in most cases just a few million - a teensy weensy bit of their net worth) to the trillion dollar floods suddenly cascading out of Washington. If those trillions aren't going to change the status quo than a rich persons food security donation won't either, unfortunately. It is appreciated but we are way more busted than that.
Now this crisis lays things all bare. Half the country has no money, living day to day. Now half of those people are going to be unemployed before this is over.
Anytime someone has brought up the crazy, insane idea of doing something about this everyone from Hillary Clinton to Mitch McConnell squawked and said "how ya gonna pay for it?" They are so folksy and wise - payin' for gum with couch change. And with the wisdom to know that it is impossible to redirect any of a $22 trillion dollar economy to the people who do all the work.
But now we are in crisis and our dysfunctional government quickly found two trillion dollars to pass around because this time, bankers and corporations are in trouble. Yes, just like in 2008 the same bankers and corporations that are still pressing their debtors and firing their employees.
And even worse than 2008, one in five people is unemployed today -and that number is even worse because we don't count he chronically unemployed - and what's happening on Wall Street? A recovery! Markets are up. There it is in a nutshell folks.
There have been two recent, small hangups with legislation. First, Republicans stopped things cold when they realized that some working poor were so poor while working that if they were not working and unemployed they might make just slightly more money. But those people are desperately poor while poor, so Republicans couldn't abide this scrap of dignity being passed around. Now the Democrats have stopped things defending a proposal to give first responders and other front line workers some real money for risking their lives to save the rest of us. But those people are poor while middle class, so Republicans won't abide this dignity being passed around either.
But everyone's getting those little checks, you say. Yes, and those are going right back to landlords and bankers and corporations, collectively the rich.
But small businesses are getting checks you say. Yes, again landlords. The money is just going back up. It is all just trickling up so the super rich don't have to do without the monthly rent from people who used to work.
So money doesn't exist but we can print it to prop up the status quo for just a few weeks. Even if you think these handouts are real charity, are you going to be able to show me any examples of poor folks, middle class folks, or small businesses coming out ahead after eight weeks? But how do you think big banks will fair? During the last recession, they used a much less generous bailout to run record profits.
What about generous billionaires, you might ask. They are giving quite a lot. They aren't actually and they have never been generous. Billionaires give less than the poor to charity both in total and as a percentage of their wealth. Go look it up. Billionaire are actually the stingiest group versus all the other classes. But they get a lot more press. Ironically, the poor give to things like the food banks they depend on. Those silly poor. Snark aside, I appreciate many of the efforts by billionaires. There are certainly some smart ones, doing some real good. But compare a billion here and a billion there (or in most cases just a few million - a teensy weensy bit of their net worth) to the trillion dollar floods suddenly cascading out of Washington. If those trillions aren't going to change the status quo than a rich persons food security donation won't either, unfortunately. It is appreciated but we are way more busted than that.
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