How low is $600 exactly? We did the math
Exactly why we need Survival Checks and not ‘stimulus checks’ that stimulate nothing
Congress finally mustered up the strength to pass a 900 billion-dollar COVID-19 relief bill after 9 long months of waiting. As Americans barely held on to a sense of normalcy with COVID lockdowns hitting their health and wallets hard, congress sat back and watched families struggle. Now that the news has broken that people will be receiving a onetime $600 dollar direct check as early as next week, it is easy for some people to feel some sense of relief. However, $600 in 2020 will not get the average American very far. Let’s break down some stats. The average rent for Americans is $1468 as of February 2020. Considering the months of back pay that many Americans owe to their apartment complexes and mortgages, $600 seems like more of a slap in the face, than a financial olive branch. The average car note is $568. The typical American household spends $550 on food per month. Apartment renters spend $100–150 monthly on utilities, while homeowners spend an average of $400.
8 million Americans have fallen below the poverty line in 2020. Out of the 900 billion dollars, only 168 billion is going directly to Americans in need.
Corporations were given twice as much money in this COVID-19 bill than the first
one, and Americans are getting half of the amount that they received in March.
Questions begin to arise as to who this bill is actually meant to help. Politicians sneakily put certain stipulations in the bill, including funding for Trump’s border wall and a whopping 696 billion dollars to the pentagon. While Americans face one of the biggest homelessness crises we have ever seen, government officials are still determined to feed the military industrial complex rather than help Americans keep a roof over their heads.
During the negotiation process, many Republican congressmen and women did not want direct payments to Americans at all. Saying that they…
“…didn’t want Americans ‘double-dipping’ by receiving a $300 increase in unemployment benefits, while collecting a $600 stimulus check.”
But that was not the same energy that was given to corporations who received most of the benefits in this bill. I say all of this to say that a government that aligns itself with the wellbeing of their pockets instead of the health, lives and financial security of its people is a failing government. Situations such as these show us who we really are as a nation. That is why it’s important that we continue to fight daily to get elected officials into office that genuinely care about the country and its citizens. That doesn’t only care to see people survive, but to have a life that is fulfilling and worth living. The onetime $600 dollar payments with this context seems like a bone thrown to the American people in exchange for their silence, rather than a real initiative to help to protect citizens from crippling debt and poverty. Progressive politicians are not just a want, but they are absolutely needed in order to help this country become a nation where we are proud to live in, and feel safe in.
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