Yes, the World’s Richest Nation Can Afford $2,000 Survival Checks

As the fight to provide one-time $2,000 survival checks crescendos in Washington, it can be difficult to grasp the size of the figures being thrown around. Can our country afford the proposal? Is the cost worth it?

Let’s look at the economic and social devastation unfolding throughout the country. Even before the pandemic, 40 percent of Americans were struggling to afford at least one basic necessity and a stunning 78 percent of full-time workers were living paycheck-to-paycheck according to figures from 2017. Half a million people were counted as homeless in 2018 alone.

The pandemic has made things worse: In the spring, twenty-two million jobs were lost which could take as long as four years to recover without significant relief. As of June, roughly fourteen million workers and their dependents had lost employer-based health insurance. The number of Americans impacted by food insecurity is now projected to hit fifty-four million — up from thirty-five million pre-pandemic. More than fourteen million American households are at risk of eviction and more than 336,000 Americans have died from the virus.

One in ten adults — and one in four young adults — have considered suicide in the last year, and violent crime has risen across the country. One recent study warned that the pandemic was creating fertile ground for terrorist recruitment by inspiring “angst” in millions of people and incapacitating “major functions and institutions of world’s societies.”

So, with all of this in mind, can the world’s richest nation afford one-time $2,000 survival checks? Should Congress filibuster the defense bill for as long as it takes to force Mitch McConnell to allow a vote on the aid? Is there a double standard at play when it comes to government largesse for rich people and support for everyone else? Are $2,000 checks good policy? Is Congress even listening to the public?

Read these ten stats and then you decide.