https://timryan.house.gov/media/pre...o-khanna-introduce-legislation-send-americans The Emergency Money for the People Act expands relief to more Americans and includes a $2,000 monthly payment to every qualifying American over the age of 16 until employment returns to pre-COVID-19 levels. Almost zero chance this gets passed, but if it does, there IS zero chance we go to the 3.5% pre-covid unemployment levels when you're basically paying a family of four $5,000 per month to stay home.
Saw a story about an employer who had to raise his employees' wages by $7/hr just to keep up with unemployment compensation. What could go wrong??
My CPA said that the break even now on Unemployment with the $600/wk the Treasury kicks in is $70k/yr
It would be a fascinating experiment to see all American families receive a livable income, even if on the government dime....you'd probably start to see real economic growth in this country for the first time in twenty years, and the Fed would certainly start to get it's "2% inflation target"....I would also expect the national "happiness index" to increase a considerable amount. Would be nice to drive through an American city and not see homeless people begging for money next to every traffic light, and sleeping all over the sidewalks. How do you put that cat bag in the bag once it is out though? I doubt the laid off Wal-Mart cashiers want to take a 25% pay cut to go back to work once the economy is running at full steam.
Many of those people would be homeless anyway. They have mental, drug, alcohol, problems it has nothing to do with money. And also, places like NYC were clean and spotless when Rudy G was mayor. Now it’s a disgusting violent shit hole under DeBlasio. The police are the “bad guys”, criminals aren’t allowed to be arrested, homeless laying around begging for money. Pretty much a liberal paradise.
They could print money right up until the point the economy collapses. Imagine a bunch of free trumpbux being given to companies via people buying things. These dollars represent no real value - they are coupons. The US would quickly lose it's reserve status as it rapidly devalues it's currency with every additional printing. Taxes would have to go up to pay the fed (since they are going to buy bonds or something) and the effective dollar value would rapidly approach 0. Unfortunately no matter what progressive fever dream you try to play this scenario in it always ends in disaster. If you browse reddit on the poor people finance subreddits people are using the money to pay off credit cards, student loans, and the like. If they aren't doing that they are spending it frivolously on garbage from Amazon, Apple, etc. This "experiment" will go down as the single largest wealth transfer from lower class to the elites in history. The robber barons could not have dreamed of a better situation. As it turns out people who are habitually poor are generally terrible with money. Giving them more money doesn't solve that. At least forcing eviction halts temporarily (the balance the tenant owes still increases) did something even if it was hamfisted and morally questionable. Giving this stimulus cash is just an attempt to buy votes. It's pointless. There is no cat out of the bag. It's been out, led a full life, and died. The minimum wage hasn't been sufficient for at least 50 years. People are gaming this system because they realize it. The actual solution is to raise the minimum wage to it's inflation adjusted value (~$11-12/hr). I've heard of plenty of people volunteering to be let go because unemployment + stimulus was more than they made in 2 months. You can view this two ways. I'll give you the way that is right. This is demonstrating that the minimum wage isn't acceptable. People are hoping to get axed in order to collect a larger paycheck. Raise the minimum wage and this problem will go away. You can bet these people will become permanently unemployed after they tasted some money and suddenly have to go back to the reality that is their maximum capability - minimum wage. As a side note I normally advocate for the removal of the minimum wage because price competition should set a better wage for everyone (after of course the sudden depression in consumer spending and prices). However this is a pipe dream. I'm advocating to raise the minimum wage here because it has a higher probability of working given the constraints of the current system.