Turns out, cutting checks to random people regardless of whether the coronavirus has actually put them out of a job might not have been the most effective form of economic relief. Who woulda thunk it?
In the weeks since the whopping $2.2 trillion bipartisan coronavirus relief package was signed into law, we’ve seen its various elements quickly result in corruption and waste. Mounting up trillions more debt on the shoulders of future generations, the bill cut everyone below a certain income level a $1,200 check (using 2019 and 2018 prepandemic income figures to determine qualification, as if that makes any sense) with an additional $500 per child in eligible families. So, too, the relief package established emergency “loan” programs, the loans often not needing to be repaid, intended for small businesses.
Some are still waiting, but many people have received their payments, and the “loan” program is already out of money. Suffice it to say, the results thus far are not exactly promising.
A few clearly very needy recipients are spending the cash on pornography, with at least one prominent camgirl website reporting a roughly 200% revenue increase the week after direct deposits started going out.
TRUMP BUCKS JUST TOUCHED DOWN FOR ME AND THE GANG.. DROP YOUR ONLYFANS IN THE REPLIES RIGHT NOW!!!! ???
— ?? (@ColeBeanz) April 15, 2020
Others are using the money to buy video games. Yes, many are responsibly spending it on gas, food, and bills, but, per Gallup polling, only about 50% of people intend to use the money on these kinds of essentials. That leaves half of the recipients doing something… decidedly less responsible.
In truth, openly spending the relief money frivolously has literally become a joke online at this point:
It is literally like one hour since I received my trump bucks and I’ve already bought my puppy his birthday cake and myself a switch lite and animal crossing ? why ??? Bc money has no value to me
— k (@crepexniall) April 15, 2020
Congress bought me some air pod pros. Not sure Apple needed the bailout money but I also supported a Best Buy.
Gonna donate my old AirPods to a person in need. Aka my brother.
— Sisig Sabathia $arsnp (@ArsnP25) April 16, 2020
When my trump bucks comin thru i need some damn drugs
— ??♂️ (@sagginbackwrds) April 17, 2020
So far I’ve only spent my Trump Bucks on food from illegal migrants, independent lewd dealers, and drugs ?
— Brendo DX (@BestFriendan) April 16, 2020
we got our trump bucks. time to buy drugs
— “Seasonal” Allergies Kev (@IcemanNotMav) April 15, 2020
daddy trump bought me a car ?
— Luis Martinez (@Martinez60Luis) April 15, 2020
My daddy trump money just bought me some boots pic.twitter.com/ZILvIEx29p
— kathleen margaret (@KLINKallday12) April 16, 2020
These aren’t just a handful of outlier examples. They are a few I found in five minutes out of literal thousands of proud social media posts from folks flaunting their wasteful spending of stimulus money.
And even for those who are spending it on something worthwhile because we spammed everyone with debt-financed checks, we have no way of knowing how many of these people would have had plenty of their own money to spend on the essentials, anyway, for whom the check is just a nice bonus.
Oh, and don’t forget the $9 million going to Harvard University, which has a $40 billion endowment, or the already rampant exploitation of the “small-business” money going first to big corporations and crony interests.
As Jack Hunter explained:
While small businesses of all types, from salons to bars to auto shops, waited for relief, some hedge funds had applied ahead of them for a loan. So many big businesses and others applied that by Thursday, the money ran out.
Many little guys are still desperately waiting. Still, the rich got theirs.
There’s a pretty obvious lesson here. As nice as wide-ranging, taxpayer-funded economic intervention can sometimes sound in the abstract, in reality, it will always and inevitably be diverted, at least in part, to waste, fraud, and corruption.
It’s almost like those of us calling for targeted coronavirus aid, rather than societywide handouts, had a point.
