** Unemployment checks are designed to go out to millions of those who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own. In an economy where there are not enough jobs to go around, those unemployment checks help families survive and guarantee that governmental cash goes straight back into the economy. Currently, the Republicans are making sure that more than 1.3 million of the jobless will receive no more such unemployment checks, even knowing that such funds get plowed back immediately into the troubled economy.
** The federal government offers special subsidies and survival aid to children in need, and to families hard put to buy groceries, through its Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known colloquially as "food stamps." One would think that providing this assistance would be non-controversial, but the Republicans, taking it out on the poor again, have continually cut the program and are refusing to restore this much-needed aid to the destitute.
A GUARANTEED INCOME FLOOR?
Given the principle that there should always be a "safety net" to catch those who have fallen badly during hard times, and that the economy needs those cash infusions to keep the wheels turning, serious economists are asking why the Treasury is not printing more money and getting it directly to the people who so desperately need it. (There are even wilder ideas circulating in financial circles these days: building a minimum income floor for every citizen, and minting platinum coins to raise emergency funds. Economists and politicians are so desperate for solutions to capitalism's crises that ideas once thought to be too extreme to be taken seriously now are prompting examination by noted thinkers.)
If stimulus-infusions would be part of the solution, how big should those checks be, and for how long should this temporary emergency fund be tapped? $250 a month for years, say? $500 for six months? $1000 for three months? $20,000 per annum if a minimum-income floor?
Certainly, one wants to stimulate the economy far beyond subsistence grocery shopping. For the economy to take off, it would seem to make sense to grease the wheels in large enough amounts, for a long enough time, to provide both for groceries and medications and adequate, affordable housing. And a way for larger purchases (cars, houses, refrigerators, etc.) to be made, thus enlivening the manufacturing sector.
WHERE WOULD THE MONEY COME FROM?
OK, let's suppose that the situation gets desperate enough to make options mentioned in this essay look reasonable. Where would the money come from to underwrite such massive programs?
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