Here’s Biden’s Plan
- $1.9 Trillion Total
- Stimulus checks of $1,400 per person in addition to the $600 checks Congress approved in December.
- Moratorium on evictions and foreclosures would be extended through September.
- The federal minimum wage would be raised to $15 per hour from the current rate of $7.25 per hour.
- Guaranteed paid sick leave.
- A $20 billion national program would establish community vaccination centers across the U.S. and send mobile units to remote communities. Medicaid patients would have their costs covered by the federal government, and the administration says it will take steps to ensure all people in the U.S. can receive the vaccine for free, regardless of their immigration status.
- An additional $50 billion would expand testing efforts and help schools and governments implement routine testing. Other efforts would focus on developing better treatments for COVID-19 and improving efforts to identify and track new strains of the virus.
- The child care tax credit would be expanded for a year, to cover half the cost of child care up to $4,000 for one child and $8,000 for two or more for families making less than $125,000 a year. Families making between $125,000 and $400,000 would get a partial credit.
- $15 billion in federal grants to help states subsidize child care for low-income families, along with a $25 billion fund to help child care centers in danger of closing.
- $130 billion for K-12 schools to help them reopen safely. The money is meant to help reach Biden’s goal of having a majority of the nation’s K-8 schools open within his first 100 days in the White House. Schools could use the funding to cover a variety of costs, including the purchase of masks and other protective equipment, upgrades to ventilation systems and staffing for school nurses.
- Public colleges and universities would get $35 billion to cover pandemic-related expenses and to steer funding to students as emergency grants. An additional $5 billion would go to governors to support programs helping students who were hit hardest by the pandemic.
- $15 billion in grants to more than 1 million small businesses that have been hit hard by the pandemic, as well as other assistance.
- $350 billion in emergency funding for state, local and territorial governments to help front-line workers.
- $20 billion in aid to public transit agencies.
- $9 billion to modernize information technology systems at federal agencies, motivated by recent cybersecurity attacks that penetrated multiple agencies.
- $690 million to boost federal cybersecurity monitoring efforts and $200 million to hire hundreds of new cybersecurity experts.
The above points condensed from APNews.
Biden’s Speech
Optimistic Finish
You can Replay the Full 25 minute Video on C-Span.
The Good
Biden’s Delivery: He came across as sincere and empathetic.
Here are a couple of comments by my readers.
- Realist: The most refreshing thing was that he didn’t spend his 25 minutes telling everyone how great he was. The second thing I liked was that he sounded sincere and showed empathy for his fellow Americans. I also liked that he didn’t comment on Red state Blue State difference. There was no call for his supporters to liberate Texas. What a difference!
- DaveBarnes: It is just so refreshing to listen to a cogent articulate speech. Whether you agree with Biden or Trump, there is a remarkable difference in how they speak to the country.
Biden’s vaccination plan is also worthy of consideration.
The Ugly
Unfortunately, I have issues with nearly everything else. $1.9 trillion is too much and it is not targeted.
Trump wanted to send $2,000 to nearly everyone. Biden embraced the idea and will succeed.
I have a problem sending out blanket checks to people who are working and have not lost a penny to Covid.
Grants and small business loans will be a pile of graft. But some of it may hit the mark as forced closures in many states have some businesses struggling.
I fear $350 billion in emergency funding will find its way into the pension plans of corrupt states like Illinois.
Eviction moratoriums are a two-edged sword. What about landlords who are on the verge of bankruptcy because they cannot kick out the non-payers?
The Downright Terrible
Look no further than point number 4 for the single worst item in the bill.
Not only is a $15 minimum wage a bad idea, Biden could not possibly have picked a worse time to try.
Small businesses were among the hardest hit in the pandemic, and here comes Biden telling these businesses they have to start paying workers $15 an hour.
Jobs in Reverse
Unemployment Claims Jump the Most Since March
Yesterday, I noted Unemployment Claims Have the Largest Increase Since March 2020
Last Friday, I noted the Jobs Recovery Has Gone Into Reverse
The economy is down nearly 10 million jobs since the start of the pandemic.
Are businesses struggling to stay in businesses supposed to go on a hiring spree?
And where does it stop? $15 today will be $20 in a year.
And what about those people making $15 now? When new hires get paid what they do, guess who will demand a raise.
Does Biden want to drive still more jobs overseas? I suppose not, but that will be the result.
Excellent Delivery
Biden made an excellent delivery. If Trump had more empathy and far less self-praise he would probably have been elected.
However, a good delivery of questionable ideas with at least one terrible idea mixed in is not the greatest of starts.
That said, this plan is likely the best we could have expected. I have hopes the minimum wage idea dies in the Senate. It will only take one or two Democrats to kill the worst proposal of the lot.
“We didn’t get into all this overnight,” Biden said of the nation’s twin challenges of the pandemic and recession. “We won’t get out of it overnight. And we can’t do it as a separated, divided nation. The only way we can do it is to come together. To come together as fellow Americans, as neighbors.”
That’s a great speech conclusion. If only his overall plan was as good.
Mish
I’m a 54 year old veteran of the Gulf War and I work for the federal government. Life long patriot with a degree in economics and half a dozen certifications in IT and Program Management.
Honestly, I just do not care anymore. I’m done and I am out of here.
Not one of those crazy liberals screaming about how they are gonna move to Canada if Trump wins, I am a conservative who is just going to do it. Though, I am choosing Latin America over Canada. Already looking at homes online and I have plans to go down in March to look at property.
I’m going to retire in 9 yrs from full time work. Going to buy a property now that I can rent out while I wait to retire. Then, when I retire from full time work I am liquidating all of my assets here in the US and going. Already researched how to move my money and how best to bank and even keep that money in different currencies. Figure I will work remotely as a consultant part time until I am 67. At $170 or $200 an hour I could work 10 hrs a week and do very well.
Friend of mine and his wife have already done this are living in Chile. They took about $2 million with them from their savings, 401ks and the sale of their home. I have other friends that are planning to do the same. Some look at Mexico, others are looking at Columbia or Western Panama.
All of us say the same thing. This country is going no place good and we do not want to be here to see it. Easier to just stop caring and get out.
I would like to speak with you I am also fed up and want out!
With the mess of a country handed over to him, nothing he does will not be at least slightly ugly, without having to take a REAL hard hit on the economy (or economist call it, a “readjustment”) , then the US become a 2nd rated country behind the EU (not crashing as fast as US since they have not been printing as much banknotes), have the US credibility devalued etc.
He is doing a short term stopgap before the world start crashing down on his shoulder the day he took office, and then he can try to navigate out of this mess via a soft landing of sort, at best. Perhaps IF he would listen to SOME experts this time, unlike the other administration, who thinks he knows-it-all in all subjects from COVID19 to Space force.
He seriously says now come together as a nation? LMAO After all he done and said for the past 5 years? Come on now! Only a fool believes stimulating the economy works long term, it just creates more debt. But if you want to stimulate give the bottom 60% twenty grand per family most would spend most of it. Waste of money but that’s what the gov does. Might make some feel batter for a while though.
If the government really wanted to stimulate the economy, they would lower income and payroll taxes. As long as wages remain at 30 stagnant lows and property, insurance and costs of living are 200% to 400% inflated over wages, nothing will improve for the 30% in the middle class and 50% in the lower class.
If the government really wanted to stimulate the economy they would lower our taxes.
As long as wages are 30 year stagnant and taxes are 200% to 400% inflated over wages, nothing will improve for the 30% in the middle class and the 50% in the lower class.
Most people in America today are spinning circles going from home to work, home to work just to pay taxes, insurance and costs of living. Nobody can afford to retire.
” the vaccine for free, regardless of their immigration status.” Mish, what are you driving at talking about immigration status? This doesn’t sound like you.
All he said about that is that it is part of Biden’s program. Nevertheless, I don’t see how anyone would oppose that. I mean, who doesn’t want the pandemic to go away? The more people who are vaccinated, the sooner we reach herd immunity, and the sooner everything is back to normal. Not only that, vaccination is cheap, while treating people in the hospital for weeks is very expensive, and if the patient doesn’t pay, that cost ends up built into everyone’s healthcare premiums.
You’re on the highway 6 months from now doing 50, immigrant a few cars up sneezes, window’s open, it’s Summer.
Personally, I’d avoid cutting off my nose to spite my face, even if it means an immigrant got a freebie entitlement.
This is who you wanted mish. The 350 billions goes to multi millionaire govt workers who retire off our backs.
If you earn $10 year after year, your pay will home in on $10, absent force. Pay tracks earnings, if it can.
It seems to me that minimum wage laws mainly benefit those who are earning slightly above minimum wage. Someone who earns $10 but can be paid no less than $15 will soon find themselves out of a job. That eliminates competition for the person earning $16.
A secondary beneficiary group are those who design and build automation equipment.
A third beneficiary group are those in places lacking the forced $15 floor.
They all do well at the expense of those who cannot earn $15.
So, is this a problem to be fixed? And if so, how help those who do not earn $15 – who get the shaft?
Wait for them to grow up and be trained? That is, don’t let them work until that time.
Move them to areas where the $15 floor is not enforced?
Close the welfare trap through just this one more, just this one more, centrally planned policy? Again.
Design and create jobs worth over $15 doable by those currently earning less?
Training? But what of those for whom “training” won’t cut it?
So, we’re back to “What do you do when your work is automated?” Since that’s been a big issue for 200 years, there should be some answers.
What happens when the moratorium on foreclosures and evictions ends? Won’t there be a huge overhang on the economy from months of missed rent and mortgage payments?
Increasing the minimum wage is to help collect more income taxes without having to vote on a bill with the word tax in it.
Not to mention sales tax.
It will be nice to have a executive branch that is functional again.
OH AND BY THE WAY There is NONE ZILCH ZERO COVID vaccine reserve. Trump admin already shipped it
“This is a deception on a national scale.” https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/01/there-is-no-covid-vaccine-reserve-trump-admin-already-shipped-it/
Renters collecting extra money for being unemployed and not paying rent are what’s keeping Tesla stick up. We need stimulus or Tesla will crash. That would be a total disaster.
Michael Lewis has a big short on Tesla. Others do as well. It will crash at some point, I’m sure.
But markets can often stay irrational longer than the average guy can stay solvent.I wouldn’t short it.
I think it isn’t just broke-ass renters punting on Tesla. It’s people like my wife, who think Elon is the man of the century…..lol.
Don’t worry. We won’t get a stimulus check as our income is way too high thanks to Roth conversions.
But, trust me, we are stimulating the world economy (USA, Korea, China, Bulgaria, France, Chile, Argentina, New Zealand, Spain, Italy).
If you converted in 2020 using the penalty-free CARES Act rules, you can split the income from that equally over 2020, 2021 and 2022.
guaranteed sick leave and hourly wage laws harken back to the 1950s dependence upon working at a factory. When do we get changes that address 21st century work? Free employers and employees from taxes on labor, lunch break rules, etc… Go to $15 per hour over five years but eliminate extra overtime pay. Right now people take on three jobs, where they could work for one company if we got rid of the archaic rules that make moany people part-time.
“Look no further than point number 4 for the single worst item in the bill.
Not only is a $15 minimum wage a bad idea, Biden could not possibly have picked a worse time to try.
Small businesses were among the hardest hit in the pandemic, and here comes Biden telling these businesses they have to start paying workers $15 an hour. “
It will hurt some small businesses…..I think restaurants and hospitality most of all…..and that is regrettable.
However, I think giving 42% of America’s poorest workers a raise will actually be a net positive over the medium term. It’s a far better idea than UBI.
The corporate employers who pay minimum wage will pass through the cost of payroll increase to the consumers, and prices for things like meat will rise.
It’s inflationary in general , because all the money will be spent. But other than restaurants, I can’t think of too many small businesses that will fail over this. I can’t find help that’s worth anything now for $15.
They won’t be giving a 42% raise to America’s least-skilled workers.
They’ll be giving money to tech companies to automate those jobs out of existence, when possible.
When not possible… well, my stores were in the child care industry and I’m in metro Oregon. Can’t be automated and current min wage is at $13+ on the way to $15. We outsourced our cleaning (my guess is that company isn’t using legal laborers), cut down our staffing (at expense of customer service), cut down on art supplies, raised our prices and still saw our margins shrink. Something somewhere has to give… the people who support a blanket $15 min wage tend to have zero perspective.
Read for comprehension. I never said anything about a 42% raise to anybody. I said raising the minimum wage would lift up 42% of America’s poorest workers.
Said another way, right now, 42% of people in our workforce make less than $15.
Certainly it makes it hard on some low margin businesses like yours.
I hire adults, and 9 out of 10 of them aren’t that crisp either. You should try our business model. Insurance companies are capping our fees….which means we’re trapped, with margins bound to keep shrinking until the day I finally quit.
But we can’t hire people who can fog a mirror…and show up…..for less than $15/hr.
The other thing on this… teenagers. If you’ve ever hired kids under 20 for a few hours here and there (I have), you realize that 9 of 10 are nearly worthless. They need to be micromanaged and most of them these days never had “chores” so they don’t know how to clean or do anything other than school work.
This pretty much prices them out of summer jobs, weekend work and evening work.
I’d hate to be running an ice cream store or the likes right now.
“But we can’t hire people who can fog a mirror…and show up…..for less than $15/hr.”
umm… exactly. And now you won’t be able to hire your mirror foggers for less than $20. You’ll always need to offer above min wage to get more than the minimum employee.
When our min wage was at $12/hr, we had the same issue. Anybody could work at Panda Express or Baskin Robbins or a tanning salon for $12/hr with no skills. We wanted capable employees and then needed to train them… so $12/hr wasn’t an option for us. We typically needed to offer 3-5 bucks/hr over the min wage.
It’ll be no different if/when we reopen. Min wage will be $15, we’ll need to offer $18-$20 to avoid anything but the worst employees who aren’t worth having.
You’ll have the same issue… they raised the floor on pay, you’ll need to offer above that or you’ll get the worst folks out there.
You’ll either be able to pass that on to your customers or you’ll suck a cut to your margins. All they’re doing is tinkering with the balance in a way that they don’t understand, and frankly few small business owners have a good balance right now (or they’d grow into a large business).
As a customer expect higher prices from any merchant who can demand them — they’re just trying to preserve their margins.
And expect to see fewer smaller businesses out there… if they can’t scale to make lower margins worth working for, they’ll just close.
Geeze as I sit here and think about the work it’ll take to reopen and get the business going, and how reduced the potential reward is… almost talking myself out of reopening.
I currently pay about $11/hour. Wages and payroll taxes are about 60% of revenue. That means that I will have to raise prices about 25% to go to $15/hour. When I raise my prices 25%, volume will fall at least 25%, most likely a bit more. I am small. When the minimum wage was $4.25 I had about 50 employees. Now, with wages about 3x higher, you’d expect that I’d have about 1/3 the employees, but it doesn’t scale exactly, and revenue and employees goes down faster than wages go up. Thus, we are down to about 13 employees now. If minimum wage goes to $15, we’ll probably again scale down a little faster, and I’d guess we will end up with 8 employees.
It’s no big deal. We’ll just do what the government tells us it wants us to do, and try to survive. Of course, at some point overhead will become too great for the remaining volume, and we’ll just close. I’ve outlasted 30 some competitors, but no business is forever.
Obviously the tighter margin businesses who have traditionally paid low wages are squeezed the most. I get that. Could I ask the general nature of your business?
It is drycleaning and laundry. Even without a minimum wage increase, about half the cleaners in the country will close in the next five years anyway. Factor in the minimum wage increase and it will be about 75% that close, and prices will be much higher at the few that are left.
I’m pretty sure $15 minimum wage would be phased in and it can probably pass with support of liberal Republicans in the Senate.
It great to have people in mind for financial help and increased wages. But the outcome will be against the people as more products will fled to china and india for lower cost. Only service business will afford the 15/hr rate because consumer will be forced to pay more for the service
Unfortunately, the government is now required to be compassionate to people. There is really no way to end “compassion,” because, in the end, we all deserve someone else to show compassion to us. The reality is that there is not enough money for the “government” to provide the proper amount of compassion. Those who receive “compassion” payments face the possibility that they will be on a fixed income paid by the government. The challenge those people face is that the currency borrowed to pay for their living expenses will become less valuable over time. This means that prices people on fixed income will pay will increase while their government check remains the same. The harsh reality is that retired and disabled people will gradually become poorer and poorer, all in the name of compassion.
We can ask the Federal Reserve to show more compassion and keep providing digital money to all…..:)
Personally I have no issue with eviction moratoriums but would like it to be targeted. For example, Blackrock has access to unlimited free money thanks to the Fed. so they are buying huge number of rental units and houses and for all practical purposes becoming monopolies in many cities so no issue with them not getting a penny from their renters. Small landlords (a few units) should be helped with may be a loan for the duration to be re-paid if the renter stays and pays and forgiven otherwise. However, that will be impossible to implement. If I has my way I will ask congress to pass a law that limits the number of units owned by hedge funds. That by the way should bring house prices down
Mish –
Respectfully, I have some questions for you and your readers.
By what standard do you conclude that $1.9 trillion is “too much”? How much would you propose and why?
How long do you think it would take the Federal Government to arrive as a fair “targeted distribution” mechanism? Who will decide what is fair? Apparently, the point of the payment is to get the money into the economy as quickly as possible, not as fairly as possible. If it were as fairly as possible there would be tax increases on those in the upper income while giving money to lower incomes. (I am not proposing that.)
I agree that landlords are put at an extreme disadvantage. However, what do you think the social consequences will be of making 10 million families homeless? Are those social consequences acceptable to you? What spending will be required to remedy them over the next, say, five years? Do you think there would be a rise in crime rates? How would we deal with those?
Have you or anyone who posts to this site ever tried to live on $310 a week? (That’s the current federal minimum wage ($7.75) times 40, if you are lucky enough to have a fulltime job.) How were you able to buy food, housing and health care? I agree the increase in minimum wage would be a disaster, but I submit the current minimum wage is a disaster of a different kind. How would you propose to remedy this? Is further skill development a real option considering there are people out of work who already possess higher level skills? I am concerned about small business also, but small businesses don’t tend toward crime when they and their families don’t have enough to eat. Is there an alternative solution that will cause less social chaos?
I mean these questions respectfully. I think it would be of great benefit to the thinking of us all if you or a reader tried to formulate serious answers to my questions.
Thank you for what I perceive as fair treatment of the ideas in the speech.
I cannot speak for Mish, but I’m a landlordd with 72 rentals.
The entire eviction moratorium is bogus help to the poor. I have over 150 people on my wait list and everyone I know does too.
I actually got called by a low income person while I was typing this and told them I had a 1.5 year wait. I told them I can’t evict anyone so I won’t have any vacancies for a while. For every person evicted there’s another desperate homeless person (but working) who wants it.
All in all, if a 10 million people get evicted they will be immediately replaced by someone who wants the unit.
That’s what the political powers in Washington do NOT get. By allowing people to stay and not pay, you hurt the landlord, the lender, and the future renter who is most often staying in overcrowded conditions and desperately wants a place to stay.
Evicting people is a zero sum game. For every person evicted another is housed. The net hurt to Americans is nil.
Also, in regards to your question about living on 310 a week……
I’ve done it. Did for years. I even saved half my income. I was single, ate beans and rice, walked a mile to work each day (not uphill both ways though) and didn’t have a TV, Cell phone or internet. I used the free internet at work.
Yes, I lived on 700 a month and 2/3/s of that went to rent. I saved 700 a month, invested it and now own rentals of my own.
Additionally, those earnign minimum wage (which is almost no one) aren’t just bringing home 310 a week. You are forgetting government benefits.
For example: A single parent with 3 kids earning 15k a year will get 7500 in tax free cash from the EIC, another 4200 in tax free income from the child tax credit, 500 a month at least in food SNAP benefits, free or almost free housing in all 50 states after a 6 month wait or so to live in a Tax credit property, subsidized child care, free healthcare for her kids via Medicaid, free healthcare for herself via the ACA if she lives in no-donut hole state, tons of state tax incentives, etc.
I’m not kidding.
Every year I have tenants at my property who better themselves financially. Example: I had a tenant who earned 15k who got a great job at the Post Office earnign 50k. She was WORSE off financially than before due to losing every one of her government benefits.
So no one just earns 310 a week except maybe an unmarried college student who still lives at home. For sure no family is living off of minimum wage. No one.
Cream rises….I love a success story like yours.
I don’t rent to low income tenants, and employment is above average here….I do think this stimulus will help me rent my one current empty……with a deposit, and having to turn on utilities, a tenant moving in to most of my places needs about 4-5K cash handy. I do rent to multiple roommates, but they all have to be on the lease.
I once made the $310 a week when it was a union wage….late 1970’s…..It sucked even then.
Had I stayed, I would now be on a corporate pension like my father once was…nothing to brag about…but the only pension I have now is my real estate. I can probably work well into my 70’s, which I view as a plus, not a minus, at this point.
I once felt like I was “more” than my job……that it didn’t define me….but at age 65 it’s a big part of my identity….which I’m not eager to lose.
People do still bootstrap…..mostly immigrants, who don’t expect anybody to give them a damn thing. But a few good ole boys make it, it they can get pass the ‘working for a paycheck” mentality.
Most people lack the discipline it takes to run any business long term. Lots of people start businesses, but the tax situation for self-employed people who begin to create just a little surplus (not accidental billionaires) tends to eat people alive.
Think about the moratorium on eviction for a moment. The renter does not have to pay rent, meaning that the rent is accrued and will be owed when the moratorium expires. It’s been extended another nine months, for a total of 19 months. So $1200 monthly accrues to $10,800. Does someone who has not been working for 19 months have $10,800 to pay up at the end of the moratorium? Of course not. So the landlord has been paying mortgage, taxes and maintenance for 1.5 years and will get stiffed at the end of the period.
If the government wants to mandate $15/hr minimum wage, then the government should pay that minimum wage. People don’t buy as many $9 hamburgers as they did $6 hamburgers. Is the government going to pay the business for the loss due to higher prices?
Clearly, once the moratoriums are lifted, a bunch of deadbeat tenants will pack up and move.
As soon as the moratorium is lifted, the courts will be flooded with eviction suits. The non-paying tenants will get a couple more months from that. Then once evicted, they’ll leave and never pay a cent to the landlord who hosted them for the year-long pandemic. Landlords will be out a year of rent and court costs.
I have a problem sending out blanket checks to people who are working and have not lost a penny to Covid. ABSOLUTELY! Friends of mine have a paid off house worth 700,000 and at least 2million invested for their soon to come retirement. They said to me “we dont need nor want the 1,200 600 or 2,000” They donated to their charity both the 1,200 and the 600.
While I agree with your premise, I’m self employed and thanks to that stimulus my revenues/income have barely been affected by the pandemic despite major shutdowns/slowdowns for many industries in my area.
I panicked and applied for the PPP anticipating the future effects of the pandemic, however, it appears I never needed it.
As for raising the federal minimum wage to an arbitrary $15, here are a couple points to consider:
Raising the minimum wage inevitably increases the number of jobs that are minimum wage and similarly decreases the number of jobs that pay better. That is not a good outcome.
Fixating on $15 is catchy for the movement, but it addresses a symptom and not a cause. The devaluing of the dollar (or if you prefer, loss of purchasing power) is the problem. Address that, and doubling the minimum wage won’t be necessary.
“Raising the minimum wage inevitably increases the number of jobs that are minimum wage and similarly decreases the number of jobs that pay better. That is not a good outcome.”
Thus stated makes no sense, can you elaborate?..Are you stating labor demand will drop, thus fewer jobs?
“Fixating on $15 is catchy for the movement, but it addresses a symptom and not a cause. The devaluing of the dollar (or if you prefer, loss of purchasing power) is the problem. Address that, and doubling the minimum wage won’t be necessary.”
Inversely, Printing, stimulus, debt and Fed cuts decrease the dollar, these are all inevitable outcomes of lower wages, any sign of potential recession and we’re doing all of them. ….The ongoing discussion here is a perfect example.
While higher consumption does increase inflation, the Fed does act…and there’s absolutely no question the Fed has a lot of ammo to counter inflation, vs the opposite with rates at/near ZIRP.
In the scale of things…this was from October (6 months in)…
…The estimated cumulative financial costs of the COVID-19 pandemic related to the lost output and health reduction is shown in Table 1. The total cost is estimated at more than $16 trillion, or roughly 90% of annual GDP of the United States. For a family of 4, the estimated loss would be nearly $200,000. About half of this amount is the lost income from the COVID-19-induced recession; the remainder is the economic impact of shorter and less healthy life….
What will another 6 months bring?
There is a cost for incompetence.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7604733/#:~:text=The%20estimated%20cumulative%20financial%20costs,loss%20would%20be%20nearly%20%24200%2C000.
Trump not only failed to impose measures to stem the growth of COVID, he encouraged it’s exponential spread by discouraging masks, calling it “fake flu” and instilling false confidence with claims that HCQ or bleach could cure it.
We’d be FAR better off now it he’d simply encouraged masks, social distancing & sanitizer.
Hey, that’s exactly what we did in Europe….Have a look at our ‘great’ numbers !
I like the paid sick leave. Lots of people are going to work sick despite the risks. Of course some places will just screw you elsewhere to pay for it i’m sure.
As far as $15hr could they all end up 1099s? No more benefits for you!
Excellent synopsis on the good/bad/ugly of the proposal.
The problem with means testing for the 2K stimulus is that the cost of the means testing (tens of thousands of hours of pouring through claims) will cost more than just sending out 2K at a blanket cutoff level. Even the blanket cutoff level is going to be gamed by people in my situation (partner is not my wife so she and my daughter will each get 2K even though I won’t because my salary is beyond the married couple cutoff) or her parents (dad is a doctor who owns practice and he/wife each get 2K because most of his earnings/deductions are business and his actual salary is under the cutoff).
The minimum wage will be a disaster. It’s one size fits all that the gov’t loves. If they made shoes, they would only make size 10 and if your feet were too big you’d cut open the toes and if your feet were too small you’d have to wear extra socks. Big cities may need 15 (or more) but small rural towns definitely do not. My partner is from a small town in Texas (100K is small but not tiny) and there people easily live on 7.50/hr because starter homes are readily available for 50-75K and cost of living is very low because no one makes a lot of money (gas well under $2, local food very cheap, labor costs very cheap etc). The town has manufacturing jobs because wages are cheap. Force this town to 15/hr and the manufacturing will all be gone and the inflation will huge because everything is suddenly going to cost a lot more. Minimum wage should be left to the states and better yet, city level.
Here in Oregon we made the minimum wage dependent on the county. We only have 3 counties that are mainly urban and the other 33 are mainly rural and could not cope with $15 minimum wages. They are on a slower pace to that goal than the Portland metro area.
Everyone thinks that raising the minimum wage is for the poor…. Its really for big corporations and thats who donates to politicians. Smaller businesses and future businesses won’t be able to compete. Big corporations will get more market share along with everything rising in price.
With $20/hr (give or take depending on state) of unemployment benefits, the de-facto minimum wage to get people to come back to work is more like $30/ hour.
If the $2000 subsidy was cut off at $35,000 of individual income and $70,000 of family income, I think it would still pass Congress. And it would be much fairer.
Nevermind many of these people are paycheck to paycheck. Reasons why dont matter it’s just how it is. They’ll spend it just like everyone else which is the entire idea.
Don’t worry. Biden’s entire term will be about giveaways to the poor.
Trump killed the Republicans in Georgia with his $2000 request. It will be interesting to see who jumps on board now.
Yes, his sabotage of the Republican Senatorial candidates from Georgia assured that Biden will get most of what he wants.
The targeted cash payments is discriminatory toward married couples. I always thought that it was our goal as a country to have a strong family unit and to promote this within our Country, if so why then penalize married couples. When you have a couple that are married neither gets a check based on income. If the couple was just living together (not married) then at least one may receive the check. That policy does not promote the family in a positive goal, that goes for taxes too the marriage penalty has never been fixed.
“it was our goal as a country to have a strong family unit” Really? Since when?
Excellent analysis of the speech delivery, enjoyed that 3/4 of the article.
Amigator, what are you talking about? For the first round of stimulus, they checks began to phase out for singles at $75,000, for couples $150,000. A quick look at the income tax tables shows that nearly 20% of singles make above that income limit, yet only 8% of married couples do. The checks are highly discriminatory towards singles, who already pay a higher tax rate per dollar of income than couples. Also, adding a second person to the household does not double aggregate costs. Many expenses go up fractionally, but not double. Additionally, those with kids get money regardless of income. And single people, through their taxes, pay for kids’ schooling and welfare programs even though they don’t directly benefit.
Just remember, getting married & having kids is a choice. Being single isn’t always a choice; it is also what happens when you can’t find a mate or you are not wanted.
Might be the wording – “discriminatory towards singles” would imply singles are discriminated.
“discriminatory toward married couples” would imply discrimination to married couples.
I don’t disagree with the criticism of the timing of announcing the 15/hr min wage; I do disagree with sloppy economics and the specious claim that “it will be $20 in a year”. Do some math and chart the growth of the minimum wage over the last fifty years, and then adjust it for real inflation. The failure to internalize cost of living increases into minimum wage keeps increasing the distance between the lowest rung of the economic ladder and median income (of the middle class).
You’re completely correct, the primary cause of diminished wages to inflation is labor demand from globalization, companies moving mfg outside the U.S., but also technology.
The lowered cost of labor has been added to executive bonuses and shareholders dividends, vs passed on to the consumer in proportion to lost wages.
What’s worth noting, the beneficiaries of the increased earnings from lower labor costs have been CEO’s and shareholders.
a better solution would be a raise to $10 per hour and have a monthly earned income credit for full time workers to make up the difference. Beats UBI as skills are learned.
Even better would be to eliminate it entirely, and do income supplementation. That way everyone can have a job, and the sense of self-worth that goes with it.
My concern, it’s going to be easy for critics to go along the “thank god he’s not Trump” line and be less critical.
I would prefer to see stronger emphasis/funding on vaccine expediting, jobs, technology than tossing stimulus checks at everyone.
A thing that’s been coming up about the participants on the insurrection last week, a majority of them are displaced workers because of COVID, Michigan in particular.
Surgically promote/incentivize industry in these areas, target the root problem.
this is one concept i agree with if we want to discourage virus tranmission nobody should have to choose between putting food on the table and not infecting others. we’ve all heard the protest about restaurants that are told to close and go out of business well i bet most restaurants and bars want to do the right thing but they also don’t want to be financially ruined.
As for restaurants, I’ve been calling in for delivery several times a week, it amazes me that so few restaurants aren’t open for eating in, yet only offer pick up.
Waiters don’t drive?
where i am, its not really a sustainable busines model.
Good point, you’re rural, I’m in a semi-dense populated area.
The general concept of my comment though, businesses can adapt, in my case restaurants that won’t deliver are losing out to those that do, and judging by the wait times for delivery (over an hour), those restaurants are swamped in business.
In one case two weeks ago I actually turned down my favorite restaurant when they told me the wait might take 2 hours, I was too damned hungry.
urban actually
In that case, try an experiment akin to my own, call local restaurants, get food delivery, it’s anecdotal, but it’s pretty enlightening.
In my area the food delivery drivers were demanding too much money for delivering food orders. The restaurant owners said they could not both meet the demands and make a go of it. In response the local government placed a maximum amount that a delivery driver could earn for a delivery. This was communicated a few weeks ago. I assume the arrangement is still in place, but I haven’t come across anything about the current status. The restaurant owners weren’t able to establish their own pay requirements for these workers.
That is true in some cases but not in others. If the husband, for example, makes $140K a year and the wife is stay at home, the couple gets full checks (each $600 or $1400 etc). Whereas if they were not married, only the wife would get a check.
The US is becoming more and more of a giant (debt)MONSTER with feet of clay… Entirely under the auspices of its reserve currency status of course….Let’s hope fairytales last forever …
I’m against eviction moratoriums too. It really picks winners and loser. My mom lives in a two family home and the income from the tenant is crucial to helping meet the monthly expenses. there’s an implied assumption that all all landlords are donald trump ebinezer scrooge types which is simply not true
As far as direct payments go, I’m all for it. I think it preferable to loans to airlines or all some of the dubious lending in ppp that went on.
From big tech to rental property, there seems to be no concern about private property rights these days.
Good point, though the rent is inevitably due, there should be a separate no-interest loan for rental owners, the PPP is for only 6 weeks payroll, some renters haven’t seen rent in 6 months.
direct payments to the renter.
“renter” was a typo, I meant “owner”