American Economy Will Not Survive COVID Without Universal Basic Income And A Dramatic Increase In SSA Monthly Benefits Payments
The numbers are in. America will be destroyed without UBI and SSA benefits increases. It simply is not possible to hope that the USA will ever be able to go back to the way it was before.
It’s often said that most Americans
are one health care or financial disaster away from bankruptcy. The Federal Reserve’s 2018 Survey
of Household Economics and Decision Making, which took the
lived experiences of 12,000 U.S. households into account, found
that 40% of the respondents would struggle to come up with $400
during an emergency. Rent and mortgages payments, debt and the
basic cost of weekly staples like groceries and medicine add up
very quickly in America. That was before the COVID-19 pandemic
began. Now, as more Americans develop fevers
and respiratory distress, and as elected officials urge the rest
of us to stay in our homes to prevent the hospitals from becoming
overwhelmed, Americans are taking a financial beating. Businesses
are closing down. Workers are being laid off at rates that could exceed
the devastation of the Great Depression. Unemployment websites are
crashing from the sheer demand for assistance. Because in America,
we don’t have much of a safety net, and there are always bills to
be paid. If millions of us can’t go to work, our system will
collapse. How do we rectify this? By
giving every household some cash. Call it emergency universal
basic income (UBI), call it a cash stimulus, but that’s the idea
that many economists and members of Congress have embraced.
Several other countries are already doing this in their own ways.
Italy, France and South Korea have respectively canceled
mortgage payments, suspended
rents and sent
pre-loaded debit cards for folks who’ve suffered economic losses.
The United Kingdom is going to pay workers who’ve lost wages 80%
of their incomes. A concept once deemed utopian and impossible is
now pragmatic. Social distancing only works if people can afford
to stay home. A concept
once deemed utopian and impossible is now pragmatic. Early Wednesday morning, Senate
leaders and the White House finally reached an agreement on a coronavirus
stimulus package that includes $1,200 payments to most
American adults and $500 to most children. Still, senior leaders
from both of America’s parties had found ways to screw up the UBI
proposals that were before Congress. Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell and the GOP released a plan
that would mail individuals the $1,200 check, but give
lower-income households only $500. (Imagine thinking that any
person in America can subsist on $500 to $1,200 for weeks — or
more likely, months — of social distancing.) Better ideas had been
put forth by Democrats like Rep. Maxine Waters, whose stimulus plan
would have sent monthly checks of $2,000 to individuals, with
additional money for dependents and a temporary suspension of
most household bill payments. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi threw
cold water on Waters’ universal aid idea by insisting
that any coronavirus aid package should be means-tested — which
may sound sensible, except means testing makes it
much harder
for poor people to get the benefits they need right away. Watching this impasse from
Massachusetts, one of the most expensive states to live
in was infuriating. And it’s ironic that we should
be at the mercy of the feds on UBI, because historically speaking,
Massachusetts has been a leader on issues that have transformed
life in America. Rep. Tami Gouveia, a Democrat from
Acton, didn't wait for Washington. On March 16, she filed legislation
for a localized version of cash aid. If the bill were taken up by
the House and Senate and signed by Gov. Charlie Baker, lower- and
middle-income households would receive a check for $1,000, with
$500 for each dependent. This aid would complement the federal
payment. In other words, localized cash aid could make a paltry
UBI package from Congress livable for more people. Instead of
thinking of cash aid as "free money," think of it as paying
people to stay home ... Localized UBI would go much further
than the state-centric economic relief ideas that we’ve come up
with thus far. The interest-free small business loans
that Baker announced last week would still leave many of us
indebted. The Boston Resiliency Fund, announced
by Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, is a step in the correct direction
(it would provide food and additional forms of material aid to
kids, older adults and health care workers). But to address the
full scale of the coronavirus economic fallout, we need the
federal and state governments to come up with a livable
and fair substitute for the economy that we’d otherwise be paying
into as consumers, workers and business owners. Mailing out checks
to everyone each month would move us a lot closer to that goal. Universal cash aid would not only
prevent bankruptcies but also save lives. Instead of thinking of
cash aid as "free money," think of it as paying people to
stay home, social distance and do their duty to prevent hospitals
from being swarmed with COVID-19 patients. Trump is already
talking about sending people back
to work by Easter (ignoring the recommendations of
epidemiologists). Cash payments would help governors push
back against Trump and urge their residents to stay home as
long as public health officials recommend. Massachusetts could find a way to do
this. We reaped a billion-dollar surplus
last year, and while we’ve agreed on how to spend $541 million of
it, that still leaves a hefty balance. We could even make
Gouveia’s aid package universal, sending out checks to everyone
now and finding a way to tax wealthier households retroactively.
That would solve the means-testing, red-tape problem. But on a broader level, doing this
would be an act of leadership and innovation in line with the
history of Massachusetts. We love to rest on laurels when it comes
to reliving the days of giving people health care and legalizing
same-sex marriage. Now, as millions of Americans struggle to
survive the pandemic without going bankrupt, Massachusetts
could show other states how to compensate for the federal
government’s inadequate response to the economic calamity. Normally, this is where I would
defend the idea of giving everyone cash from the charge that it’s
a socialistic idea — that’s how it goes in American life. But
we’re in a new world now. Countries are enacting policies
that were once deemed unfeasible — because those policies are what
people need to make it through a pandemic. And in America, you
need money to live. Americans want a plan to increase
monthly Social Security benefits, veterans assistance and
Supplemental Security Income benefits by $200 a month, which could
further add to a stimulus bill.
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) joined Sen. Ron
Wyden (Ore.), the senior Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee,
and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in calling for the expanded
benefits to be added to the phase three stimulus bill. The additional benefits, which would last through the end of
2021, would provide seniors, veterans and people with disabilities
an extra $4,000 over the next two years. "Immediately increasing Social Security benefits would put money
in the pockets of seniors, veterans and people with disabilities
during these uncertain times," Schumer said in a statement.
"Senate Democrats are committed to quickly delivering relief to
the millions of Americans bearing the weight of this public health
crisis." Warren said increasing Social Security benefits "would get money
directly to millions of people quickly." "Social Security was created to respond to the Great Depression,
and expanding it now will ensure this critical program helps us
meet the challenge of the current crisis," she added. Proponents of expanded Social Security benefits made a strong
push for the proposal during a House Democratic conference call
Thursday morning. Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.), the Ways and Means Social Security
Subcommittee chairman, pitched his bill, The Emergency Social
Security Benefits Improvement Act, on the call. It would provide for a 2 percent across-the-board increase in
Social Security benefits for 64 million people, increase the
threshold for the special minimum benefit to 125 percent of the
federal poverty level, and reduce taxes on benefits for low- and
middle-income individuals and families. Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) said it's a popular idea in the
House Democratic caucus. "If we're talking about bailing out certain industries, we've got
to treat the most vulnerable population in this pandemic, our
seniors, with the same priority," he said. "It's an appropriate
economic stimulus. It's also a critical part of retirement
security and economic security for some of the worst-affected
Americans." A major Democratic criticism of the Senate Republican stimulus
plan is that it does not do enough to help people on the lowest
rungs of the economic ladder who are especially vulnerable to the
economic downturn caused by the coronavirus. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (Mich.), one of the Democratic negotiators,
on Friday faulted the GOP plan for proposing $1,200 rebate checks
for adults earning up to $75,000 per year but much less for people
who earn little to no federally taxable income. "I couldn't believe that they were talking about lowest-income
people getting $600 and somebody making $75,000 getting twice as
much as that, $1,200," she said. "Those numbers don't make any
sense."The Federal Check Won't
Be Enough To Same America. Now's The Time To Introduce A
Universal Basic Income
Implement
Universal Basic Income to give home
& food ...
Does
coronavirus mean the time has come for a Universal
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