The only thing we can seem to talk about these days is the coronavirus, aka Covid-19. It’s all over the media everywhere you look. How many deaths, what are the symptoms, who’s more susceptible, wash your hands and to stay at home. We are updated daily as to what we should be doing to protect those who are more vulnerable, and yet some still disobey the order because they are not used to being trapped in the homes they chose, and certainly not used to being told what to do. They’re protesting now that their rights are being violated. Their rights to get sick if they choose; which is ok if you don’t care, but what about those who are in the line of fire from catching the virus such as the health care workers, grocery clerks and delivery workers? I think they may care that you don’t care.
People are scrambling to sign up for unemployment, some for their stimulus checks so they can have some money to get by during this time of uncertainty. Many don’t have enough to pay rent because they’ve always lived paycheck to paycheck, but now there is no paycheck. This ‘one paycheck away from homelessness’ was a well-known fact in this country well before this pandemic. Yet we all became complacent in keeping it that way, after all, you had a job. Even if it was just a ‘gig’ job you were gainfully employed running errands for the ‘haves’ and the ‘don’t wanna get it myselves’. The economy was booming, apparently, while most had 2-3 gig jobs, in addition to a full time job, barely making ends meet.
Was there any business in the ‘good times’ increasing wages that rose to match the standard of living? The real story is companies have no money, no real money they can put their hands on at least. Now that’s the company, not the people who run the companies. The CEO’s make sure they’re paid and paid very well, that’s why they’re called the top 1%. The companies they head have been borrowing money at nearly zero percent interest rates for the last few decades. They’ve made it look like they have stable companies so they can buy their own stocks, and to attract ‘Joe Average’ to buy into the hype that their company is viable. So we invest in the hopes that we will kick ass and be able to retire at 65 in relative peace and tranquility. So when a pandemic hits what happens? Workers get laid off because the companies are broke, and I mean they’ve been broke for decades, and the workers lose their retirement. We’ve been told by the likes of Suze Orman et al to have 3-6 months of emergency funds, so where exactly are these companies 3-6 months emergency funds? Get it? Suze Orman is right to tell us to do it because it protects us when times like this occur, but who is monitoring big business? Anyone?
Big business and their workers are one in the same, in massive debt but spending like they have it. The only difference is one telling the other that they are impoverished because of their spending habits or lack of education. Meanwhile companies are high in debt getting ready to lose everything after only 2 months of a disaster until of course the government bails them out, again, and leaves the workers with next to nothing, again. Remember the housing implosion? Who gave regular people bailouts? Yeah, I can’t remember either. No wonder companies balked at providing health insurance, they just didn’t’ have it, but just couldn’t tell you, the worker, they didn’t have it, after all who would buy into their bogus stocks?
Now what? Well now you know you are one paycheck away from homelessness. You got the forebearance for rent for the next 3-6 months, it’s not a waiver it’s like a paypal ‘bill me later’ plan. So how do you get back to working your ‘paycheck to paycheck job’ and actually pay back the rent that you missed if you can actually only pay a month at a time from your earnings? You are indeed in a pickle and have no bailout money as big as ‘big business’. Big companies have their guardian angel, the Fed, waiting in the wings to bless them with more money, aka, more debt. But you, who’ve been paying into the tax system since birth, gets a measly stimulus that doesn’t cover all of your monthly expenses. A stimulus, by the way, paid basically using your own tax dollars. It’s certainly not from big business, they got a tax cut remember. The government isn’t telling big banks and utility companies to put payments on the back end of your bills so you can just pay for food with your stimulus. They’re saying after three months…and silence. What will happen to your car payment, mortgage, rent, utility bills and credit cards after 3 months? Everyone is panicking, the government….silent.
Was the way things were before the pandemic ever good for the people or did it only benefit the companies, the top 1%? Was living paycheck to paycheck the drug that fanned the flames of homelessness knowing that the next paycheck would at least pay the rent for the next 30 days and nothing more? Do we now know that where we were is no longer good enough? Or are we content in getting the $1200 and just keeping it moving on the same road we have always traveled on. You know the road, the road that leads to not paying your rent AND pay for utilities in the same month.
This is not to say the $1200 will not be something to someone, but to those who live in high cost states it’s not enough to cover a month of rent. And when that well runs dry then what?
Some may say what about your emergency fund? Who can afford to save for an emergency when they live frugally in the first place? And I certainly hope those same folks repeat those same words for those big companies who are struggling right now too. Those rainy day words are for those who have the privilege to have something extra left over after all their necessary bills are paid. These words of wisdom are not for those who have nothing left to spare, and unfortunately there are too many.
There needs to be a system in place in high school if not sooner that talks about the economics of life. Maybe that conversation is not being had because life seems to want us to play in the debtors game until we die. If kids in high school knew what was in store for their future they would potentially make much different decisions about which colleges they would attend. Currently everyone talks about the prestige of the school and that that alone is worth the cost of the education. But how long are you deep in debt, and how much do you really pay in the end for that prestige? How much of your life will you spend in the wheel making enough money to pay back that loan?
Long ago you could get a bachelors degree and come out owning a few thousand at best. I know no one who graduated college in the 90’s who owed a lot, if any, college debt. Ask a college graduate today how much they pay for an education that may or may not have a job or career waiting at the end of it all, and it is exorbitant. If the fee matched the education it may be a profitable venture, but I don’t see many getting out with new ideas, fresh perspectives, or challenging ideology. Colleges are churning out the same prospects as the high schools, no worse but no better. All so you can come out owing more and working gig jobs on top of your regular job so you can pay for the college that you graduated from 20 years ago.
So they start the children off in debt to the colleges so they can grow accustomed in adulthood to living in debt to mortgage companies, credit card companies, etc. It’s a cycle of take and no give and it has to end somewhere. At what point can you not refinance a home loan that you already have to lower the interest rate and yet not qualify? If you can pay more, you can certainly pay less, but this makes no sense to lenders. It’s a cycle of take and no give. At what point do you want to consolidate your credit card debt from a mix of percentage rates to just one and you can’t consolidate because you have that debt? It’s a cycle of take and no give. At what point do you have no debt and yet they ask if you would like to take out a loan? It’s a cycle of take and no give.
The old system has never worked, at least not well for those who are on the brink of homelessness. But why? Is it what everyone thinks it is? Is it the pressure of having what the Jones’ have? Is it the pressure of keeping up appearances? Is it the idea of your having worked hard so you deserve the things you cannot afford? Or is it just that your income isn’t enough to cover your basic expenses?
The economy is not doing well with all of the paycheck to paycheck people not working. Don’t ever think that anything is ever being done for you because many have been in this position before of not being able to make ends meet and no one cared then. But because it’s affecting every business, the economy, then it becomes a problem that needs to be solved. Everyone ignored the problem as it stood when it was person to person. It was ‘their’ fault they were homeless, it was ‘their’ fault they had no food to eat, it was ‘their’ fault they had to live in poverty, just work harder.
Whose fault is it now?
They need us. They need us to buy for them to stay in business. Together we have the power not for a revolution, but for change. Problem is we suffer from short-term memory loss and when things are good we forget when things weren’t so good. We are offered cheap tickets and discounts to where they want us to go so we can spend what we don’t have and have the cycle of debt continue. At one time people were placed in debtors prison for not being able to pay their debts now they just have a low credit score after maximizing their credit. The punishment is no more credit for as long as the credit is too high, which is no punishment at all because it’s debt you shouldn’t have had in the first place.
People are now in the revolving cycle of ‘till death you will have debt.’ What we know for sure as everything stands as it is today is we will all die alone, and the majority will die in debt or die broke.
What can we do to change the cycle? Learn from this pandemic. Know that the government could have helped families long ago, they are now, right? And let us all try to figure out what’s actually important to us. Is it the wheel of debt they want us to remain in, or is it to live within our means while making our means more substantial? We have to begin to fight for what is right and for what is fair, and that does not mean fight each other. They want us to fight each other over meaningless things like race, gender, religion and disability so we focus on the minutiae verses what matters. Fighting over what falls from the top 1%’s scraps on the table is still scraps.
I suggest we all try to see through lenses without scratches and take it from there.
