9 Reasons All Americans Deserve a Second Cash Stimulus
By: Jennifer Stanley
Tags: Congress, Stimulus, Pandemic, Stimulus Package, Covid 19

Photo by Micheile Henderson on Unsplash

For many, life in America right now is a nightmare straight out of a Dickens novel. Christmas is fast approaching, and many don’t know if they’ll even have a roof over their head after the holiday, let alone food on the table and gifts under the tree. Meanwhile, hopes that Congress will do their job and help via a second round of stimulus cash continue to dim.

It’s heartbreaking to look at what other nations are doing to support their citizens, while lawmakers in D.C. can’t seem to agree on anything other than that the bloated U.S. military needs more money. You know, because clearly, the heftiest threat facing Americans right now is a foreign invasion, not ever-increasing poverty and a pandemic that is by definition a global crisis. Cue the eye roll emoji.

Even those who have done everything right are struggling through no fault of their doing. However, since the folks in D.C. remain utterly out-of-touch with how those of us without a private chauffeur to drive our kids to soccer practice live, I figured they could use a few reminders. Here are nine reasons that hard-working Americans — not corporations and certainly not their billionaire owners — deserve a second cash stimulus now.

1. The Storm Has Only Begun

Even before the pandemic hit, economic experts predicted another recession to strike somewhere between 2019 and 2021. They weren’t sure what would cause the next one, but I think we have our answer.

Those of us who have weathered other disasters know that it isn’t the downpour itself that does the damage. It’s the ripple effect that echoes for months and years afterward that drowns you.

Many who were struggling to rebuild haven’t fully recovered from the 2008 housing collapse. It takes years to get your credit sufficiently up to snuff enough to buy a home again after foreclosure. Those who rent are subject to their landlord’s whims, many of whom seem to enjoy playing “Monopoly” with people’s lives during the shutdown — more on that phenomenon momentarily.

Now, nearly every metro area saw a jump in unemployment again in December. What’s worse is that well over a third of people reporting fell into the long-term unemployed category, making it more challenging for them to find work. As emergency protections expire on December 26, millions will find themselves with zero income sources unless Congress acts now.

2. Many People Have Faced Hour Cutbacks

If you managed to keep your job throughout the pandemic, you are among the fortunate ones. However, even those who still call the same individual “boss” may struggle to pay their bills.

Many hourly workers have seen their hours slashed due to low demand. Those who work in the personal service industry have seen their client base shrink as folks choose a few extra inches of hair or ugly toenails over potential infection risk. Hourly workers already often have to work multiple shifts to make enough to cover rising costs — when demand drops, they sink like stones, and not from lack of “bootstrapping.”

3. Many Have Resorted to Credit to Cover Bills

According to the Rand Institute, fully 52% of families with incomes less than $25,000 a year struggle to pay their bills each month. What’s tragic is that those who need the help the most often have nowhere to turn when they need it.

Those who earn between $25,000 and $149,000 annually typically turn to credit cards, and many companies are granting line increases and penalty waivers during the crisis. However, those with lower incomes lack access to this safety net.

Not that it is much of a landing pad, even for those with available credit. While many do repay their debt, others find no recourse outside of bankruptcy once their debt spirals out of control. This status makes them ineligible to buy a home or obtain new credit, which further slows down the overall economy. Recovery will be a long time coming largely due to what folks have had to do to survive minus assistance from the government.

4. Many Are Losing Homes — Even If They Pay

Months ago, I wrote about the looming pandemic housing crisis. Now, with the holidays here, millions are thousands behind on rent and facing eviction to start the new year.

Will an extra $1,200 suffice to keep an overzealous landlord satisfied if their tenant owes back rent of $6k? Maybe and maybe not. However, it can give the suddenly homeless individual enough cash to put a downpayment on a room so they can at least get out of the winter cold.

Plus, some of us who have kept up with our payments are nevertheless struggling. My old landlord tired of playing the game earlier in the pandemic, giving me less than 30 days to pack up and fund a pricey move. Now, not six months into a new lease, my current landlord is considering selling. While it’s all well and good for the wealthy to use economic downturns to reorganize their investment portfolios, they too often do so by driving up rents and evicting long-term tenants in favor of starting Airbnbs.

5. Searching for Work Is Expensive

Yes, it’s possible to write your resume on a sheet of notebook paper and get hired — if you and your family can survive on $8 an hour. For those who need to do things like keep a roof over their head and eat, though, you need to put in additional effort to get the job, especially in today’s tough market.

People who rarely used computers before now have to upgrade to new laptops merely to meet the minimum technological requirements for Zoom interviews. Households who previously skated by with minimal bandwidth speeds now need to upgrade. Inclement winter weather means hailing an Uber instead of using public transport for in-person meetings, lest you show up with your three-piece suit all wrinkled and snow-sodden.

6. Parents Are Working Extra Shifts

If you are a parent during COVID, my heart goes out, and my hat goes off to you. I have no idea how you managed to juggle homeschool and work.

Politicians love to kiss babies as publicity stunts, but those already in Congress seem to have conveniently forgotten that parenting is the most important job in the world. As such, it deserves fair compensation. $1,200 for several months of a 24-hour shift with no breaks doesn’t cut it, but it’s better than nothing.

7. Everything Has Become More Time-Consuming and Expensive

If COVID-19 illuminated one thing, it’s that no member of Congress has ever faced the frustration of making a frantic grocery store run between job #1 and job #2 only to discover the shelves empty of toilet paper. Guess who’s driving three miles out of their way in hopes that the shops in the next town have some — after their second shift?

COVID-19 has made everything more time-consuming and expensive. Gas prices aren’t terrible, no, but when you have to drive around to several places for necessities, those pennies add up. The same goes when you have to add “masks and hand sanitizer’ to every shopping list.

8. Funerals Cost a Small Fortune

I can’t think of a friend of mine without crying. She’s lost multiple beloved family members to this virus. Beyond the emotional cost of such a staggering loss in a short period, funerals don’t come cheap.

The United States, like nearly every government worldwide, made a Faustian bargain at the beginning of this pandemic — how many lives were they willing to sacrifice to save the “economy.” Without going into the moral implications of the course our leaders have chosen to date, the fact remains that their choices have directly led to unnecessary deaths. While no amount of money can replace a beloved mom, uncle, or cousin, the least the government could do is help defray burial expenses for those their policies let die.

9. Wage Stagnation Means Fewer Have Any Emergency Savings

I’ve written this sentence a million times in a million places, and it still, unfortunately, rings true. It’s easy for financial advice columnists to write, “don’t use credit and save an emergency fund.” Do you know what they never tell you? What to do when you do have a crisis and burn through your stash.

Here’s the real kicker, though — given over 40 years of wage stagnation, many low-wage workers couldn’t afford to save much of an emergency fund at all. As a result, many are seeing bank balances that read like giant goose eggs.

What’s worse is when one out of four Americans who lost work find new employment — but can’t pay their bills at their new starting salaries. While it’s refreshing to think of folks who previously referred to the millennial generation as “slackers” instead of running the numbers getting a slap with the reality stick, the fact remains that the economy will suffer for a long time when consumers have less spending power. If you go from making $20 an hour to $12, it takes years to amass sufficient raises to recover — all the while prices continue rising.

So many economists have noted the following information that it hardly bears repeating. However, one more time for the folks in the back — giving money to the already wealthy only results in padding overseas bank accounts. Conversely, giving people a survival check when they need it immediately injects that cash back into local economies the second the starving buy their first meal in forever.

All Americans Deserve a Second Cash Stimulus — Congress, Please Act Now Before It’s Too Late

I hesitated to write this piece as a list. Americans need a second cash stimulus for many reasons, but I don’t want to in any way downplay the very real suffering and death many are experiencing while the folks in Congress make like Nero and fiddle. However, the folks in charge need to look beyond the headlines. They must see the way the COVID-19 pandemic has affected every American, even if it outwardly seems like they’re doing okay.

The bottom line? Generating the needed revenues to survive a crisis is the whole reason we pay taxes in the first place. The people’s money should be spent on the protection of our citizens during this time of hardship. Helping them recover from the COVID-19 pandemic via another round of stimulus checks for all isn’t only the ethical thing to do. It’s a test to see whether our leaders truly act as representatives or merely as medieval lords exacting their bounties from the peasantry while providing nothing in return.