Since the beginning of COVID, I’ve struggled to focus on material benefits. Initially I looked for disagreement because I like to argue on some degree. Instead I want to first see the picture before making any judgement so in that, what is the picture? Where are we as a country and how do we find solutions for material benefits?
The U.S. workforce pre COVID was around 165 million people. Over 40 million folks lost their jobs due to the Coronavirus which converts to an effective unemployment rate of roughly 25%. Will all those jobs be gone forever? No that isn’t likely but there’s a few other numbers to remind ourselves of before we even get there. First is that in 2019, 40% of Americans couldn’t cover a $400 emergency in a reliable way. They would incur a burden that would further their economic disparity. 40% of people living in America is roughly 130-140 million people one emergency away from being unable to pay their recurring expenses. Keeping that in mind, last month, 32% of U.S. households didn’t make their housing payments. In that 19% made no payment, where the other 13% only made a portion of their rent/mortgage. The context from the U.S. Census means that 38 million people in America are at risk for eviction should the trend continue or worsen. Finally, this is also without counting for the racial disparities with this issue from the echoes of Jim Crow making black and brown Americans in particular uniquely disadvantaged. To combat that, any solutions should first tackle the most affected communities because they’re, at minimum, largely in those positions because their families have always been left out in any sort of economic uplifting in the past. Not by accident but purposefully excluded.
My proposal would be Find, Fill, & Fix. First would be locating the empty apartments, homes, and unused commercial space. Second would be to fill them with people but also fill their hands with tools and their minds with books. Give them time to learn because the first two steps will take some time. Time is needed before the finale, Fix. It is no secret the infrastructure for this country is poor. Implement a federal jobs program for empowering the health of that infrastructure by providing those newly jobless peoples with a guaranteed job with a living wage to help these people break their link to the debt cycles they were caught in prior to the COVID crisis. They would be focused on the areas around the apartment or home and not be limited by uniformity. Allow the people their own space to be creative in their repair of our broken infrastructure so we can begin with a new one one where everyone of every race can be included.
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