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No one seems to be thinking reasonably about this COVID relief package.
$600 doesn’t do much for millions of people. It’s crazy to give people who haven’t been impacted that much $2k.
We don’t even have evidence this type of cash infusion given these circumstances will work!
We don’t even have evidence this type of cash infusion given these circumstances will work!
Congress had months to sort out a way to potentially have targeted aid go to people who needed it. But instead they sat on their hands, fought about the optics, tried to score political points, and otherwise did nothing.
There are a lot of other aspects of the bill other than the direct aids - things like vaccine support and small biz loans and rental assistance - that I think make more sense.
But the way we’re talking about the direct aid is bananas.
But the way we’re talking about the direct aid is bananas.
But the discussion around it seems disconnected from the facts. It’s a bunch of people complaining that $600 isn’t enough (probably, but is that the goal? To be “enough”? For whom?) or that they’d like 2K (who wouldn’t!) or that it’ll stimulate the economy regardless (debatable).
All of this direct stimulus money is being taken from one group of Americans (those who pay taxes) to another (those making under 87k or with kids).
Aren’t the parameters of that wealth transfer worth discussing? Have we discussed any of that?
Aren’t the parameters of that wealth transfer worth discussing? Have we discussed any of that?
Plus, realistically this is money that’ll need to be paid back in the future by younger people. It’s a question of intergenerational ethics.
Have we talked about that at all? Have I missed that?
Have we talked about that at all? Have I missed that?
To be clear, my contention isn’t that this is a bad idea, circumstances being what they are. It just seems like we aren’t actually wrestling with the things that matter here. At all.
And there’s a lot of the entitlement trap here. Helicoptering in money allows the government to avoid making the difficult decisions - when and how do we reopen? What sacrifices need to be expected? - and gets Americans hooked on the government playing savior.
and, again, we just aren’t talking about this. There’s ENORMOUS risk in all of this. These decisions are big and weighty. They have downstream impacts. Lots of those we don’t know.
I guess where I net out in all this is that we should be giving more aid to those in need (unemployment, rental assistance, direct aid, etc.) and we should do more to figure out what that need actually looks like.
