Unemployment benefits ended long ago, but working people have continued to suffer. People who were forced to quarantine and miss work due to government mandates don't get unemployment. Unemployment is no replacement for the millions of people who saw their children's schools shuttered for a year (or two!!) and were forced to quit their jobs and stay home to take care of their children. Food, energy, rent, health insurance - all the things people need to survive - are up massively year over year, far higher than the meager wage increases seen by some workers.
The government gave out trillions. Trillions that ended up in the pockets of the country's wealthiest people, who saw their net wealth double or triple during the pandemic and corporate profits soar while working people fell further under water. Its absolutely astounding how out of touch people who look at macro numbers supplied by the FED and the White House and think that everything is swell. Everything isn't swell. There's a reason that 72% of Americans think the country is heading in the wrong direction. American household debt is at an all time high. Millions of Americans face imminent homelessness as eviction moratoriums are lifted. Its incredibly tone deaf to sing the praises of the economy when its as bad or worse than its been for many or most working people in the country in a century.
> People who were forced to quarantine and miss work due to government mandates don't get unemployment.
Yes they did. PUA made them qualify too. Or if they didn't lose their job, there was PPP and child tax credits.
> Trillions that ended up in the pockets of the country's wealthiest people, who saw their net wealth double or triple during the pandemic and corporate profits soar while working people fell further under water.
No, this didn't actually happen. It looks like their wealth went up if you measure starting from March 2020 when there was a stock market collapse, sure, but poor people's wealth went up and their income has gone up significantly with pay raises since.
>It looks like their wealth went up if you measure starting from March 2020 when there was a stock market collapse, sure, but poor people's wealth went up and their income has gone up significantly with pay raises since.
Poor people don't have "wealth". Most lived paycheck to paycheck before the pandemic hit and they lost their jobs and were forced to stay home and take care of their children. The ones lucky enough to keep their jobs didn't have their salaries increase nearly as much as inflation, which massively eroded their ability to afford even food and other basic necessities. As cited above, the world's richest people doubled and tripled their net worth during this period. Millions of working people face eviction and homelessness, today, after the recent expiration of eviction moratoriums. Its simply a willful denial of reality to reject these easily checked facts.
> Most lived paycheck to paycheck before the pandemic hit and they lost their jobs and were forced to stay home and take care of their children.
Where they got more than $2400/mo in stimulus, and CTC continued until this year. It's certainly bad that expired, but there's time to renew it.
> The ones lucky enough to keep their jobs didn't have their salaries increase nearly as much as inflation, which massively eroded their ability to afford even food and other basic necessities.
No they didn't, poor people's pay raises were better than inflation. It's the middle class who are down - but that number is largely because consumption shifted from services to goods (since people stopped being able to travel/don't want to go to restaurants). If you decompose it, it still looks like the largest increases are transitory.
> Millions of working people face eviction and homelessness, today, after the recent expiration of eviction moratoriums.
They expired three times in the last 3 years. Each time there were news articles saying it would be a huge problem, and each time it wasn't (thankfully). That's because we managed it quietly at smaller scales.
The government gave out trillions. Trillions that ended up in the pockets of the country's wealthiest people, who saw their net wealth double or triple during the pandemic and corporate profits soar while working people fell further under water. Its absolutely astounding how out of touch people who look at macro numbers supplied by the FED and the White House and think that everything is swell. Everything isn't swell. There's a reason that 72% of Americans think the country is heading in the wrong direction. American household debt is at an all time high. Millions of Americans face imminent homelessness as eviction moratoriums are lifted. Its incredibly tone deaf to sing the praises of the economy when its as bad or worse than its been for many or most working people in the country in a century.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jan/17/world-10-ri...
https://www.ibtimes.com/american-household-debt-rises-all-ti...
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/downhill-div...
https://buffalonews.com/news/local/deluge-of-eviction-cases-...