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Money flowing through the economy
It makes no sense to give me a $1,400 economic stimulus payment. I have no mortgage, rent, uncovered medical bills, no food shortages, no heating fuel problems. I have a comfortable retirement income. So give the payment to those who need it, those with income of say, $40,000 or less. It would almost certainly be put into the economy immediately, thus supporting businesses and jobs.
It makes no sense to tax that payment. Why give it to those who need it and then next year at tax time say, “Gotcha!” and take a chunk of it back? In fact, after the money changes hands five or six times, it has all gone back into the flow of tax funds anyway. The Paycheck Protection Program is also a good one because most of that money goes into wages, which will quickly go back into the economy, giving a double beneficial effect: the business retains its employees and they spend the money, supporting struggling businesses. And, if used for wages, the loan should be forgivable.
The secret of a healthy economy, and country, is the flow of money. Without that, no blood flows through the veins of the economy.
Harold Shaw
Penobscot
Who we are and who we’ve become
Spare me the “This is not who we are!” declaration. This is absolutely who we have become. “Talk to each other.” How? What do you say to change the hearts and minds of third- or fourth-generation racists? Or conspiracy theorists who believe in Jewish fire-starting lasers?
How can they not be “who we are” if they’re in Congress, governing half of our states and rising up armed, maskless, menacing and moronic? Many of us don’t forget “who we are,” grateful our ancestors had the courage to leave the “old country,” making the tough trip to America to find a better life for themselves and those who came after them.
Native Americans suffered and still hurt from being victimized because they were here first. If someone is a Black American, their great-great-greats were abducted from family, home and country. Starting in 1619, they were thrown into the bottom of a boat, beaten, starved, often expected to row across oceans or thrown overboard if they objected. Those who survived were shackled, ripped from other stolen family members, sold at slave auctions, whipped, tortured, raped, murdered. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery and birthed the KKK and white supremacy.
Today, Black lives matter far less than white Lives in the justice system, voting booth, education, employment, economic security, health and housing. Native Americans, immigrant-descendant and, for nearly 400 years, African Americans are “who we are” by birth. Alas, the hate-filled, entitled, hypocrite extremists are “who we’ve become.”
Carol Selsberg
Eliot
Vaccine discrimination
The COVID-19 vaccine is supposed to be currently available to any Maine resident over 70 years of age. I say “supposed to be” because there is an obvious discrimination factor involved that I have yet to see mentioned in the media. If someone is over 70 and can afford to buy a computer and can also afford to pay for monthly internet access, they have a much better chance of obtaining an appointment for COVID-19 vaccine than their poorer counterparts who cannot afford such luxuries.
People with computer access have been able to schedule and take vaccine appointments at locations far from where they live. Locals who cannot afford the same computer access are unable to compete with more economically well-off peers. Some I know who are lucky and persistent have been able to schedule appointments by phone after waiting on hold for over an hour at minimum. I know others sit at home in frustration and sadness when a friend (whose computer literate grandson obtained the slot for them) comes back and describes talking with people from hours away who had computers and were able to book slots.
There has to be a better way! Maine’s elderly who are poor are being discriminated against. Many live alone and are not capable of driving long distances. There needs to be a mechanism for including them ahead of the wealthier and healthier.
Sharon Mason
Orrington