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Search PPP Loans by Zip Code

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81–88 of 88 posts

Re: Search PPP Loans by Zip Code

#81
post #29
post #16

$755B was forgiven. I know that there are many benefits for this program but I cannot resist comparing this with the NSF budget. This is equal to about 75.5 years of the current NSF budget (assuming constant budget but unlikely as there is planned deep cuts). If we assume that the budget will increase 5% to adjust for inflation (unlikely too) then that would about 32yrs. Not that I'm comparing in absolute usefulness.…

It's been discussed before but I'll go ahead and say it again. Any administration that was actually serious about cutting spending to benefit the American people would start with cutting unnecessary defense projects and large scale healthcare reform. Those categories take up the vast, vast majority of the budget. But instead, they cut the programs projecting benevolence to the world and protecting us from tuberculosi…

Often when people speak of healthcare reform, it’s spending more from the budget.

But otherwise yes, Defense, Medicare, and Social Security are the largest expenditures.

Re: Search PPP Loans by Zip Code

#82
post #47
post #16

$755B was forgiven. I know that there are many benefits for this program but I cannot resist comparing this with the NSF budget. This is equal to about 75.5 years of the current NSF budget (assuming constant budget but unlikely as there is planned deep cuts). If we assume that the budget will increase 5% to adjust for inflation (unlikely too) then that would about 32yrs. Not that I'm comparing in absolute usefulness.…

Why was it forgiven?

When the program was launched, there were ways of exempting from repayment, like not doing lay offs.

Re: Search PPP Loans by Zip Code

#83
post #29
post #16

$755B was forgiven. I know that there are many benefits for this program but I cannot resist comparing this with the NSF budget. This is equal to about 75.5 years of the current NSF budget (assuming constant budget but unlikely as there is planned deep cuts). If we assume that the budget will increase 5% to adjust for inflation (unlikely too) then that would about 32yrs. Not that I'm comparing in absolute usefulness.…

It's been discussed before but I'll go ahead and say it again. Any administration that was actually serious about cutting spending to benefit the American people would start with cutting unnecessary defense projects and large scale healthcare reform. Those categories take up the vast, vast majority of the budget. But instead, they cut the programs projecting benevolence to the world and protecting us from tuberculosi…

One causes "the base" to dig in even deeper in their support. The other makes people happen under subsequent administrations. Americans' addictions to cheap sugar doesn't end at literal donuts.

Re: Search PPP Loans by Zip Code

#84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or it was because employees need jobs a lot more than they need $2,500, so if everyone got $2,500 and lost their job, employees would be screwed in like 3 months. Profit may not trickle down like you hope but pain sure does.

More accurately, it was to preserve employment relationships. Historically, once mass layoffs happen, they are contagious. Once unemployment rates rise, companies plan to cut costs to ride out a recession. Also, once employees are unemployed for an extended period of time (something like 9+ months), their odds of finding similarly paying work drop permanently. It was in everybody’s best interest to reduce the employe…

Absolutely. The weird strain of Marxism running through our country these days sort of imagines a bunch of politicians sitting around going "ok, we have to keep the fat cats fat so they keep giving us illegal stock tips we can abuse for our own profit". And not that that never happens, but it seems like in the middle of the depths of the Covid pandemic, they just wanted to not add economic depression to the list of problems we had.

And sure, the when the government transfers large amounts of money it's like moving water with a leaky bucket and in this case maybe a colander, but I'd rather be sitting here 5 years later complaining about fraud than a depression.

Re: Search PPP Loans by Zip Code

#85
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.

Re: Search PPP Loans by Zip Code

#86
post #44
post #24

Feature Request: I really wish there was a button to use the zip code where I'm looking on the map. I don't have zip codes memorized. So I see a bunch of pins around the zip code of my childhood home and then the rest of the map is blank. My only option is to open google maps in another window and copy paste zip codes back and forth. Cool website though - despite the effort to navigate I'm finding a lot out.

Just added this! Thanks for the suggestion :)

Awesome! This makes browsing funner. I am shocked how many PPP loans went out - it's almost every single business in some places. I had no idea.

Re: Search PPP Loans by Zip Code

#87
post #61

I for one remain incredibly grateful that they shoveled money out the door, and imperfectly helped lots of small businesses provide some cash to some employees. If they had sat around worrying about the critics or trying to prevent any possible fraud before sending out the money, everything in our country would have frozen up that much more.

They could have just cut anyone who filed a W2 a check, paid to the same account (or address) as last year's IRS tax refund for that filer. It would have been even easier, more equitable, and certainly less fraudulent than this program. They probably would have seen a bump in late tax filings, too, getting more people onto the tax rolls. It was extremely disheartening to see the way this program was applied. I can't…

> I can't think of any decent reason why the money had to pass through the hands of the employer first.

Feudalism.

Re: Search PPP Loans by Zip Code

#88
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Spread the entire budget out, all expenses line by line for all to see, and may they survive or be culled based solely upon their merits in the eyes of the American people. What do you envision this looks like? To my mind this is already done. For example, here's the appendix to the FY2018 budget: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BUDGET-2018-APP/pdf/BUDG... Note that the appendix is described thusly: "Contains d…

I think that kind of proves my point: These "budgets" are so damn convoluted that nobody actually understands them. Even the House Speaker is surprised at the shit DOGE is digging up, and he's the boss of the people who write and pass the budgets. And even that aside, anyone who knows how the real world works can understand that what should happen and what does happen are not necessarily the same especially if corrup…

It's not clear to me that administering an entity with as many people and as much land as the United States could be done in a simple enough way that would satisfy these objections (not necessarily yours specifically, but this broad class). Though I certainly don't object to the notion that there's fat to trim and ways to make things less complicated.

I would be interested in an existence proof of this: an entity of similar population and size with a budget that's simple in comparison.

My naive expectations are that more authoritarian countries will hide a lot of budgetary items and countries with coalition-style governments will have even messier budgets than the US. Looking into that would be interesting but it's not going to make it onto my Sunday morning short-list.

My opinion about this remains that if the governed are really interested, they need to put in the ground work to understand the material that's available. Some things just are complicated and require studying to understand.

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