Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Nearly 8M Americans have fallen into poverty since summer

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 273 posts

Re: Nearly 8M Americans have fallen into poverty since summer

#11

Post by HenryKissinger »

treeman79 wrote: post #7
dopylitty wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Republicans refused to remove a liability shield for companies from the bill.

That's a good reason to refuse to pass the bill.

Re: Nearly 8M Americans have fallen into poverty since summer

#12

Post by neuland »

t-writescode wrote: post #3
war1025 wrote: post #2

Who 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.

And yet they didn't stop the lockdowns once it was clear the stimulus was not going to happen.

Re: Nearly 8M Americans have fallen into poverty since summer

#13

Post by datenhorst »

treeman79 wrote: post #7
dopylitty wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Source? I'd prefer a reputable one, if you please

Re: Nearly 8M Americans have fallen into poverty since summer

#15

Post by TheBlight »

OminousWeapons wrote: post #6
war1025 wrote: post #2

Who 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.

But the federal government didn't shutter any businesses. You can thank the state governors, county officials and big city mayors for that.

Re: Nearly 8M Americans have fallen into poverty since summer

#16

Post by just-juan-post »

OminousWeapons wrote: post #6
war1025 wrote: post #2

Who 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.

The FEDERAL government didn't do anything.

STATE and LOCAL governments did.

Why should the federal government bail out states for their actions?

And yeah I will remember all this during the next election. I was a Democrat all my life until early 2020 and now I'm done. I'll be voting against them from now on.

Re: Nearly 8M Americans have fallen into poverty since summer

#17

Post by nradov »

OminousWeapons wrote: post #6
war1025 wrote: post #2

Who 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.

The blame for the situation lies squarely at the feet of the state and local governments. The federal government didn't force any businesses to close. There is a huge variance between states in pandemic control measures. If businesses are still open in Florida then why should Floridians pay federal income taxes to subsidize closed businesses in California?

And states do have options for funding relief at the state level. For example they could temporarily raise income taxes on the wealthy for the duration of the pandemic. Or issue pandemic bonds.

Re: Nearly 8M Americans have fallen into poverty since summer

#18

Post by powersnail »

save_ferris wrote: post #10
3minus1 wrote: post #5

I 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 r…

Another aspect is that selling used stuff doesn’t bring much money in, especially clothing. I don’t even know whether it’s sellable.

Apart from my car, if I sell all my belongings, I might get one month worth of rent. Hardly seems worth it, unless there is a way to use that money to earn more money.

Re: Nearly 8M Americans have fallen into poverty since summer

#19

Post by toomuchtodo »

powersnail wrote: post #18
save_ferris wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 r…

Another aspect is that selling used stuff doesn’t bring much money in, especially clothing. I don’t even know whether it’s sellable. Apart from my car, if I sell all my belongings, I might get one month worth of rent. Hardly seems worth it, unless there is a way to use that money to earn more money.

Also can’t sell or trade your car to downgrade if you need a car, as if you need financing to get the next car, you’re not going to qualify for the loan if you’re without employment. Your car is a trailing indicator of your financial situation, not necessarily present state.

Re: Nearly 8M Americans have fallen into poverty since summer

#20

Post by disgrunt »

OminousWeapons wrote: post #6
war1025 wrote: post #2

Who 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.

It was state governors who shut their states down. Not the federal government.
Post reply on HN