Congress just laid a giant turd of a response to the Coronavirus crisis, offering a measly $1200 per person, 1 time, that’s needs-based on a tax return. First, the size of this offering is pathetic and won’t do a damn thing to alleviate the other issues that are crashing down on people across the country, and two, they are still worried about picking winners and losers in the economy.

The economy doesn’t matter. That’s the part they don’t get.

It won’t be the same economy ever again. Even years after the Coronavirus has been put away, the after effects of this global pandemic will live on for a long time. People won’t just flock back to movie theaters or concert halls. Arts organizations will be starting at ground zero, as people are trying to pick up from the financial carnage that is taking place.

The health care industry is going to try to ask for bailouts, and try their normal attempts to charge $50 for .50 bag of saline and $3000 a day just to come in to die on a cot. Insurance companies will try to pass the buck, saying a pandemic is an act of god and we’re not covering it. Banks are already playing games saying they will let you skip 3 months of mortgage- but then it’s all due lump sum.

But, this is just the part these mental midgets in Congress are thinking about. It hasn’t entered their heads what could happen if people who don’t get checks, the large underbelly of the cash economy, runs out of money to buy groceries or drugs (legal and illegal) or pay their rents. Sure, no one’s getting evicted right now, but if you think foodbanks can feed the hungry during this, you’re on drugs.

Crime will blow through this country like it’s never been seen before. We’re not going to put folks in jails which will soon be full of dying inmates, we won’t enough healthy police to stop the riots. Anarchy will happen- and happen fast. That’s why putting money in peoples hands right away, and realistic amounts is the most important thing Congress could do- and the only caveat is, if you get caught doing something bad- your money stops. $1000 a month per person, no matter what age, or income level, on a card, every month.

As to all the financial markets, rents, mortgages, loans, interest rates, insurance payments, and the like- the giant FIRE industry, Finance, Insurance, Real Estate, needs to just be put on ice. Freeze it all, until we make it though this. If millions die, it could possibly be such a shock to the standard constructs that they will implode anyway. The health care industry/insurance complex is already in for a shock when no one will be willing or able to pay for “Coronavirus care” anyway- at least not at their hyper-inflated prices that they’ve built their model on. The feds (which means us little people- not the corporations who find tax loopholes and ways to become billionaires without paying taxes) will bail them out- and we’ll be paying back that $1200 times 100.

2 weeks ago, I wrote that the only solution is a global siesta. Now, it’s even more obvious that it was the right approach. Unfortunately, congress didn’t read it- or doesn’t care. They are too busy worrying about their donor base instead of the people who ultimately elected them. If you hear anyone call it a “stimulus” package, you know they don’t get it. The correct word is “survival.”

This has to change.