It's so telling. My small city shows hundreds of genuine small businesses who got loans on the order of ten thousand dollars to one small business getting
$800. It's great. All these places were struggling during the pandemic and absolutely were helped with it, and half a million dollars doesn't disrupt our local economy that much.
Until you see it.
A high end barber shop specializing in giving guys whiskey while they get haircuts employing like three people got $100k.
A company that turns used sails into handbags got $1 million.
An ancient seafood restaurant on the waterfront got $1 million.
Our city's busiest diner got $800k.
An S Corp called "capital servicing Inc" got $300k
A small office of architects got $300k
Flatbread Pizza company got $540k
The niche upperclass restaurant my girlfriend and I have reservations for valentines day for: $500k
The """acquisition""" company next door: $300k
I want to be clear here. For most of these big ticket loans, there is an equivalent sized loan to a genuine establishment that employs a lot of people. So many tiny loans to so many people who probably applied for an extremely reserved amount of money, "just to get by". All the businesses run by literal immigrants who asked for pittances, just so they could pay rent and keep operating as things evolved.
But holy fuck. This is like 50% grift. One stupidly oversized loan to a business that employs three people completely outclasses the hundred tiny loans to hardworking people.
But no, it's those on welfare who are the problem. It's those who have nowhere to legally sleep that are the problem. It's poor people buying chips with SNAP that are the problem. It's grants for science that are the problem.
I feel it's worth noting: This is how America has done everything though. There's ALWAYS been 50% grift in everything we do. We needed a railroad. Instead of building it like a public good, we gave away tons of land for free to the railroad companies as incentive to build the railroads, which allowed them to keep all the power in their hands, instead of being a public good that all companies could use. When Pons and Fleischman thought they had invented cold fusion, they publicly thought they could find a way to spend maybe $1 million to further their research and really confirm if it was the real deal. Their University turned around and asked congress for $25 million. Before anyone had even replicated meaningful results.
Nobody does pork like the US.