Buy Food or Keep Car - Part 2

The following blog is Part 2 of an article written in the Sunday New York Times, August 9, 2020 by Ben Casselman and Gillian Friedman. I was looking for something to write about the lives we live now with the Pandemic this week and when I read this I had to share it as this is how I AM FEELING. 

At the end of our ropes, we are all beginning to make choices that we never imagined we would have to.

Jason DePretis and fiancee

$600 Dries Up, And Decisions Are Wrenching

Buy Food or Keep Car? Consequences Spiral

When Jason DePretis and his fiancee lost their jobs in March, they started falling behind on their rent and

car payment. The $600 a week unemployment check was a lifeline, allowing them to hold on to their home and their car. When the lifeline snapped at the end of July both the repo man and the landlord showed up on the same day. With the $600 a week he probably could have kept both gentlemen happy, but he didn't have it and so had to give the landlord what money he had and watch his car be towed away.

And it was a terrible time to lose the car. He had found a job starting in September at a restaurant, but it is 45 minutes away, and there is no bus service that corresponds with his hours. The closest food bank is 30 minute drive away, and he can’t get there without a vehicle. He said he didn’t know how he and his fiancée would put food on the table for themselves and their two children.

“Without the $600, there’s absolutely no way that my family’s going to make it,” he said.

For families like the Depretis, even a temporary loss of income can be the start of a downward spiral, said Elizabeth Ananat, a Barnard College economist who has been studying the pandemic’s impact on low-wage workers. Wealthier families may be able to draw on savings to get through until Congress reaches a deal. But for lower-income households, even a temporary lapse in benefits can have lasting consequences. An eviction can make it hard to rent in the future. Having a car repossessed can make it hard to get another car or find another job. And for children, periods of hunger, homelessness and stress can have long-term effects on their development and learning.

Many Republicans argue that the extra benefits were keeping recipients from looking for work, especially because many were getting more on unemployment than they had made on the job. Business owners have complained truggling to fill positions.

But several studies have found no evidence that the supplement was discouraging job hunting, and many workers appear to be accepting jobs even when the pay is less than their unemployment benefits. And by injecting billions of dollars into the economy each week, the benefits almost certainly prevented even more layoffs.

As Revolutionary Patriot  Thomas Paine said, "These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman."  1

1 Thomas Paine, https://www.ushistory.org/paine/crisis/c-01.htm

                           

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