This Pandemic is showing an ugly reality.
* Lines wrapped around the block for food assistance.
* Millions missing rent / mortgage payments.
* Millions have lost their medical care insurance.
* Millions are having to choose between a virus that might kill them and homelessness.
Too many people have NO cushion to draw from if the paychecks stop coming. I live in an affluent area and even here the schools are a lifeline for food. Some of the same Trump supporting people screaming "let um eat cake" toward poorer folk have been first in line at food pantries, loan programs etc.
And make no mistake about it, some of these people are missing payments on the Lexus and the half million dollar plus house in affluent suburban Cincinnati. You would think a lot of these folk would work from home, but there are a lot of medical and tech people around that ended up on unemployment too. You would think they had some savings, but it turns out a lot of well paid folk live at the max of their income too and are paycheck to paycheck.
This ugly reality opens an opportunity.
It is time to stop making people with 6 figure a year paychecks our enemy. We are all in the same ocean, even if our boats are different sizes and some of us are taking on water fast. If I'm in a rowboat and my neighbor is in a yacht that is on fire and sinking, I'm going to throw a life preserver... because I am a decent human being. Even knowing they'll probably get a new yacht in a month and blow through the no wake zone flipping over all the row boats.
But while we are in the moment we have a chance to get a few tweaks to the system that will benefit a large number of working for paycheck Americans.
* Make food and housing assistance part of unemployment benefits.
* Allow people who do not have employer sponsored medical insurance buy into Medicare / Advantage plans.
* Provide Social Security credits to people who have to leave the workforce for care for disabled children, parents or spouse.
* Increase benefits available to elderly and disabled people for home care rather than being forced into nursing care.
How to pay for it? A small tax or fee on stock, bond, commodity and derivative sales / trades. It will do 2 things, slow down the volatility in the market and help a tiny bit in equalizing the share paid by investment vs work in this country.
I will probably get flamed... but I am sincere in this idea.
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... AND return inheritance taxes to pre-Reagan Era levels.
If the new Democratic administration can do all of that, we might have a fighting chance.
