Nearly 8M Americans have fallen into poverty since summer
washingtonpost.com
Nearly 8M Americans have fallen into poverty since summer
1–10 of 273 posts
Re: Nearly 8M Americans have fallen into poverty since summer
#2Who would have guessed that kneecapping the service industry would be bad for the service sector?
Re: Nearly 8M Americans have fallen into poverty since summer
#3Who would have guessed that kneecapping the service industry would be bad for the service sector?
Most reasonable people that asked for lockdowns also asked for stimulus packages to give those people who couldn't work money while they're out of work so they could survive.
Re: Nearly 8M Americans have fallen into poverty since summer
#4Who would have guessed that kneecapping the service industry would be bad for the service sector?
The issue is that the US government has refused to help people during a time when they should absolutely not be forced to work face to face jobs to pay the bills.
Instead Republicans have held aid hostage in exchange for legislation allowing businesses to force employees to work in unsafe environments with no recourse[1]. Even so far as a measure that would allow the US attorney general to penalized employees up to $50k for having the audacity to sue businesses for creating unsafe environments.[2]
1. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/12/15/disturbin... 2. https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/12/covid-liability-shield-la...
Re: Nearly 8M Americans have fallen into poverty since summer
#5I heard this on NPR recently and was really moved by it [1]. Recommend reading the whole thing.
> You know me. I'm in your friendship circle, hidden in plain sight. My clothes are still impeccable, bought in the good years when I was still making money. To look at me, you would not know that my electricity was cut off last week for non-payment or that I meet the eligibility requirements for food stamps. But if you paid attention, you would see the sadness in my eyes, hear that hint of fear in my otherwise self-assured voice.
Re: Nearly 8M Americans have fallen into poverty since summer
#6Who would have guessed that kneecapping the service industry would be bad for the service sector?
The blame for the situation lies squarely at the feet of the federal government. If you are going to shutter businesses and put people out of work, you need to pay the business owners and the employees who you have affected. Staying economically viable vs staying medically viable should have never been a tradeoff people had to make here, and Americans should all remember that when the next election rolls around.
Re: Nearly 8M Americans have fallen into poverty since summer
#7Who would have guessed that kneecapping the service industry would be bad for the service sector?
The issue is that the US government has refused to help people during a time when they should absolutely not be forced to work face to face jobs to pay the bills. Instead Republicans have held aid hostage in exchange for legislation allowing businesses to force employees to work in unsafe environments with no recourse[1]. Even so far as a measure that would allow the US attorney general to penalized employees up to $…
Load of crap.
Republicans were willing to negotiate on a smaller package.
It was held up by the speaker because it made Trump look bad.
Re: Nearly 8M Americans have fallen into poverty since summer
#8I heard this on NPR recently and was really moved by it [1]. Recommend reading the whole thing. > You know me. I'm in your friendship circle, hidden in plain sight. My clothes are still impeccable, bought in the good years when I was still making money. To look at me, you would not know that my electricity was cut off last week for non-payment or that I meet the eligibility requirements for food stamps. But if you pa…
[deleted]
Re: Nearly 8M Americans have fallen into poverty since summer
#9Who would have guessed that kneecapping the service industry would be bad for the service sector?
The blame for the situation lies squarely at the feet of the federal government. If you are going to shutter businesses and put people out of work, you need to pay the business owners and the employees who you have affected. Staying economically viable vs staying medically viable should have never been a tradeoff people had to make here, and Americans should all remember that when the next election rolls around.
> Americans should all remember that when the next election rolls around
Unfortunately, for most people the truth is that they "like their representatives, it's all the rest that are corrupt"
Plus Washington is close enough to a 50/50 split right now that you can always just say it was the other party holding everything up.
Re: Nearly 8M Americans have fallen into poverty since summer
#10I heard this on NPR recently and was really moved by it [1]. Recommend reading the whole thing. > You know me. I'm in your friendship circle, hidden in plain sight. My clothes are still impeccable, bought in the good years when I was still making money. To look at me, you would not know that my electricity was cut off last week for non-payment or that I meet the eligibility requirements for food stamps. But if you pa…
The fear of "looking poor" is so real in the US, which makes it harder to see who's struggling. It also creates this cognitive dissonance I've noticed here on HN where an article gets posted with pictures of the extended lines at food banks and people point out that most people seem to be driving relatively new cars, therefore why are they in line at a food bank?
I think a lot of people don't understand how poverty really looks because we're socially motivated to project wealth and status wherever we can.