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Additional 6.6M File for Initial Unemployment Benefits [pdf]

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Re: Additional 6.6M File for Initial Unemployment Benefits [pdf]

#401
post #230
post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why republicans hate universal healthcare so much, even when facing unprecedented pandemic?

Have you seen the federal government lately? It's totally understandable not to want that to be in charge of your healthcare.

That's an argument for improving the federal government, not accepting the status quo as the natural order of the universe.

Re: Additional 6.6M File for Initial Unemployment Benefits [pdf]

#403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't the point to be able to sustain someone until they can get another job? What's the point of giving someone enough money to pay their mortgage but not enough to eat, or enough to feed kids? There's more expenses to living than mortgage and utilities. Food, health care, home repairs, funerals, car repairs, etc.

> Isn't the point to be able to sustain someone until they can get another job? Yes, that's the point. It's not designed to enable (or even encourage) everyone to live paycheck-to-paycheck during the good times. The value is less than 100% of replacement income for several reasons: - The system must maintain an incentive to return to work. Paying people 100% of their replacement income to not work will reduce the inc…

> - The system must maintain an incentive to return to work. Paying people 100% of their replacement income to not work will reduce the incentive to return to work.

Is there any evidence that shows this? I would think 4 months of 100% replacement income followed by no longer receiving unemployment benefits provides plenty of incentive to return to work.

>This is a difficult topic to discuss because people reach for strawman arguments about families becoming homeless, but realistically a $60K/year equivalent income is not far from the annual median household income. People can and do find ways to live on that amount all over the country.

I mean, the median household income in 2018 was 62k, and an estimated 78% of the country lives paycheck-to-paycheck. Yeah plenty of people can survive fine on it, plenty of other middle class people would be unable to afford their mortgage on it. Forcing people to sell their houses due to job loss from a pandemic seems like a pretty morally unfair system, as well as a poor economic outlook for the country.

Re: Additional 6.6M File for Initial Unemployment Benefits [pdf]

#404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Remember that 100 years ago, and then again 80 years ago, large percentages of men in Europe were removed from their own countries and sent somewhere else; ships transporting food and supplies were actively sunk, houses and factories were bombed to smithereens. In spite of the massive economic damage that caused, civilization did not descend into anarchy, and very few people who weren't prisoners starved to death.…

Do you have any sources that compare government and private savings at the two time points? I am surprised by your claim that savings were higher at the height of the great depression

> Do you have any sources that compare government and private savings at the two time points? I am surprised by your claim that savings were higher at the height of the great depression

Not immediately, but the U.S. was on a gold standard at the time and funded the war through war bonds (and establishment of income taxes) which were largely purchased domestically.

The gold standard bit is important because the government was not able to simply print money to fund the war.

Re: Additional 6.6M File for Initial Unemployment Benefits [pdf]

#405
post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

55% in the latest Morning Consult poll[1]. And this is after a heavy push from the healthcare industry against it, as well as strong opposition from all of the Republican leadership and most of the Democratic leadership. Before the recent blitz against it, polling was 70%[2]. [1] https://morningconsult.com/2020/04/01/medicare-for-all-coron... [2] https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/403248-poll-seventy-pe...

80% like their healthcare. I think a significant part of that 55% doesn’t realize that Medicare for all takes away their health insurance. It seems when people get educated on Medicare for all, it declines in popularity. https://news.gallup.com/poll/245195/americans-rate-healthcar...

Health Insurance is not health care.

No one likes their health insurance. They like having health insurance given the horrifying alternative.

No one (except those on the ACA) gets to really "choose" their insurance either. Your employer offers a few plans. Those can change completely based on their whims.

Why would I care if M4A takes away my health insurance? Please, by all means, take it away! I don't care who pays the bills. In the last 10 years, I haven't been able to keep a primary doctor for a stretch longer than 2 years. Every year for the last 5 years, I have to critically look at my own health needs and try to guess as to what plan on the ACA is going to rob me the least. My taxes would have to go up at least $20,000 a year for it to even approach what I'm spending on a plan that I'm terrified that I might actually have to use.

Re: Additional 6.6M File for Initial Unemployment Benefits [pdf]

#406

Unemployment benefits have been significantly expanded under the Coronavirus aid bill. The benefit amounts will sound small if you're living in an expensive city like SF or Seattle, but $600/week from the federal government and a similar amount from state unemployment insurance means that unemployment benefits can pay up to an equivalent of $50-60K/year right now. That goes a long way in most parts of the country, es…

What will the employees, in the US at least, do for health insurance? A pandemic is when you need it. These employees will be strained to pay for COBRA. I fear that we will see revolutions in countries where this is not contained, from either a health or economic perspective. An old saying is that you should buy stocks when there is blood in the streets. I hope that doesn't become literal.

In my state, a health insurance plan can be bought of the market place for one person for a few hundred dollars / month. I'd hope that they get the stimulus checks out soon so people can pay, or that states are willing to accept IOUs of the stimulus check in exchange for a cash advance.

Re: Additional 6.6M File for Initial Unemployment Benefits [pdf]

#407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What will the employees, in the US at least, do for health insurance? A pandemic is when you need it. These employees will be strained to pay for COBRA. I fear that we will see revolutions in countries where this is not contained, from either a health or economic perspective. An old saying is that you should buy stocks when there is blood in the streets. I hope that doesn't become literal.

Also I'm not sure if I'm in agreement with the tactic of immediately pushing employees to unemployment. Unemployment is funded by taxes which are largely paid by the same people being laid off. If you're promoting businesses push people to unemployment instead of first trying to cover them during hardship and also taking a loss (as everyone else is), you're pushing for more tax subsidies to businesses indirectly. Une…

> Unemployment is funded by taxes which are largely paid by the same people being laid off.

No. Unemployment is a mandatory insurance that all employed people must contribute to based on their income level. It's not a tax. It's an insurance.

> If I'm laid off, I'll first look at my savings and hit the job market before I consider driving right into unemployment.

That's silly, but okay. Would you not tell your home insurance that your house burnt down? I guess you may worry about a higher premium, but you don't need to worry about that with unemployment.

Re: Additional 6.6M File for Initial Unemployment Benefits [pdf]

#408
post #323

The long term scars of this upcoming Depression will be unlike anything anyone under 70 has experienced. And the scars will be long lasting. My mother in law used to use Cool Whip containers for leftovers. When we'd visit, she'd send us home with food packed in them. Usually stuff like mashed potatoes, but often good stuff too. And when we'd visit her in a few weeks/month, she'd ask where her containers were. This wa…

That's not a bad thing.

Reuse > Recycle† > Landfill

†Assuming Recycle is not the same as Landfill, which it often is.

Re: Additional 6.6M File for Initial Unemployment Benefits [pdf]

#409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention all the assets that would be freed up for younger generations.

Is that really freeing anything up, or just accelerating inheritance? It's not as though we'll find ourselves with a magical new land of free cash for all - it'll just get passed down as it was going to anyways. Boomers are already leaving the workforce in droves, I don't expect it'd be any sort of revolution.

Boomers have fewer children. Many have none, so yes, many assets will be liquidated.

Re: Additional 6.6M File for Initial Unemployment Benefits [pdf]

#410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was under the impression that Italy did test for covid also post-mortem? there were claims here couple days back that this was the case (and a claim that apparently Germany didn't). if that's the case then how could the numbers be different?

People also die now for example because of a heart attack that cant be treated due to overwhelmed hospitals. Not saying that is the case for the numbers, I dont know. In London someone died of malaria last week because it took 9 hours for an ambulance to show up.

thanks, makes sense and wasn't considering this
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