Six Hundred Dollars

I can’t imagine how $600 is going to save people who lost their jobs months ago and are struggling to pay the rent or feed people.

You’re hearing about a lot of other countries who took much better care of their suffering citizens, but I suppose that wondering about it here is just an exercise in futility.

Certainly doesn’t seem that the health and welfare of the downtrodden is high on the list of priorities.

Many of us have worked all the way through. I have, but there’s a lot of angst there as well. I’ve had to get on planes, worried about getting the virus and bringing it home.

Christmas parties are canceled. Bonuses are light or non-existent for a lot of people. Seems that most people are making do with less.

Yet, head into the grocery store. See what $100 gets you. I gasped at the price of beef the other day.

What kills me is reading about where huge chunks of that first relief bill went.

Millions to Joel Osteen’s church?

Loans to companies who’s owners are millionaires?

Yet, the most vomit-inducing aspect of it all is that the billionaires among us were vastly enriched by the pandemic.

That shouldn’t be happening.

What’s more is that some are saying that part of the hold-up was because one side of the argument was trying to gain protections against companies being sued if their workers get sick.

I work in construction where the fear of OSHA has a real bearing on whether or not companies look out for the safety of their employees.

The fear of being fined for bad faith is a true deterrent. If OSHA were somehow gone the number of people who die on the job would triple. People who sound off against unsafe work conditions will be punished.

I don’t know what happens next. I’m blessed not to be in a position where I’m thinking about paying the electric bill or buying dinner.

It’s just hard for me to comprehend how $600 is going to save some of the people who are suffering.

And 320,000 deaths to this virus?

Sad.