COVID-19 Outbreak (Update: More than 2.9M cases and 132,313 deaths in US) (7 Viewers)

[Loose Cannon]

House, Senate Coronavirus Relief Bills Offer Different Cash Payouts To Individuals

The Senate and House have both proposed bills that would provide immediate cash payments to most adult Americans. The amounts of the payments, however, differ greatly.

www.forbes.com

Best I can do. Just has the comparisons as of yesterday. However, I do like the little trick they are pulling. This is noting but an advance credit on your taxes. It’s not free money at all. Much like the Bush checks that were sent out, they will simply screw you over when you go to file your taxes in 2021. Look at the senate bill. The house bill was thrown out there just to get some negotiating leverage.

So it looks like $150k AGI is the cutoff for a married joint return, if they stick with what they had in their last proposal. Thanks.

 

[St. Geezy]

This whole spreading has me concerned. It started in China from what we can tell say some time back in November ‘19. How has it spread throughout the world so quickly, IF it is truly a virus that is mostly communicable thru direct contact/close proximity with others?

i am no where nearly knowledgeable enough to understand how it has spread so quickly from its point of origin. It really blows my mind, how it has spread over the entire world and infected so many, in a short amount of time. I wish someone could explain in layman's terms how we got to this point. And now we are trying to distance ourselves from one another, when it has spread from a country so far removed. Something that just boggles my mind. Has it traveled thru the air, to other countries? Were there that many people from Wuhan that came into contact with so many others that contracted the virus and spread it globally? I just really have a difficult time comprehending. Thanks!

See below. I posted this in this thread probably some 200+ pages ago at this point, but it really can be done as easily as this video depicts. This two minute mid-credits movie scene pretty much perfectly illustrates how such a highly contagious virus can travel so quickly and easily over a relatively short amount of time:

 

[Eeyore]

Also, +rep to anyone who can find details around the income limits for the socialism checks they're giving out. I can't find anything on it yet, just that "high earners" won't get anything.

As of Sunday you would get the maximum if you had a 2018 taxable income of-$75k and that would decline on a sliding scale uo to a 2018 taxable income of +$99k. I don't know if that changed.

It's ridiculous because $99k in a rural area is not equal to $99k in an urban area.

 

[Loose Cannon]

As of Sunday you would get the maximum if you had a 2018 taxable income of-$75k and that would decline on a sliding scale uo to a 2018 taxable income of +$99k. I don't know if that changed.

It's ridiculous because $99k in a rural area is not equal to $99k in an urban area.

Yeah. There are plenty of families making $150k that live paycheck to paycheck in places like Austin or NOLA (which is another discussion entirely), where that'd make you rich in a rural area.

 

[Super44]

Yeah. There are plenty of families making $150k that live paycheck to paycheck in places like Austin or NOLA (which is another discussion entirely), where that'd make you rich in a rural area.

If as a family say of 4, is making 150K/year, (taxable income) and are living paycheck to paycheck, there is some serious living beyond your means. Believe me on that. I will leave it right there.

 

[Goatman Saint]

If as a family say of 4, is making 150K/year, (taxable income) and are living paycheck to paycheck, there is some serious living beyond your means. Believe me on that. I will leave it right there.

Let me guess. You don’t live on the west coast do you?

 

[superchuck500]

Coronavirus: Prince Charles tests positive but 'remains in good health'

The Prince of Wales, 71, has mild symptoms but "otherwise remains in good health," Clarence House says.

www.bbc.com

 

[Rickboy]

I know plenty of people in the Silicon Valley area that make a over $250K a year and barely make ends meet. Living there is VERY expensive. I hope one beneficial side effect of this will be more people working from home and thus not needing to concentrate themselves in such an expensive area. I’ve turned down extremely high paying jobs in the Valley, including an exec level position, because it would require me to relocate there.

 

[bclemms]

If as a family say of 4, is making 150K/year, (taxable income) and are living paycheck to paycheck, there is some serious living beyond your means. Believe me on that. I will leave it right there.

Consumer debt levels as well as corporate debt leves were at levels that the country had never seen going into all of this. The consumer was driving businesses who were growing using debt and debt was driving the consumer. Government debt is also reaching levels never seen before. This was ok when GDP was humming along but when that GDP shrinks all that debt suddenly becomes an obvious bubble that pops. In other words, our entire economy was being blown up by people living beyond their means so this stimulus is likely just going to be an temporary bridge to get through the next few weeks. The attempt here is to push the debt back 3 months for the consumer which then creates a 3 month gap without income going to lenders but the Fed is trying to create a bridge for the lenders to cover that 3 month gap. At some point the government will not be able to build any more bridges and the consumer is going to still have to pay the debt back, the lenders will still need those debt payments to operate. It just feels like we are trying to use debt to solve a debt problem created by a pandemic. I'm not saying we shouldn't do the fiscal package, it just feels like panic in an attempt to prevent the inevitable. Only way this works is if jobs aren't lost in mass.

This is an article, almost a year old, that shows just how much debt was ballooning. Since this article the FED dropped rates twice before even getting to the pandemic and drop to 0 so the debts levels went into overdrive the last 7 months.

U.S. consumer debt is now above levels hit during the 2008 financial crisis

Consumer debt has hit $14 trillion, a level some might find worrisome.

www.marketwatch.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

Come on guys. That’s one instance reported and i haven’t heard of many other instances. Don’t be dramatic like the whole country is against Asians now.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2020/03/14/opinion/Racism-coronavirus-asians.amp.html

 

[superchuck500]

The income thing really depends on the local cost of living (and housing cost is the key factor) and whether the $150K is earned by one person or two (if it’s two, there are additional costs such as childcare, and twice the costs associated with working - like commute costs, work clothes, etc) . There are localities where $150K made in total by two people is very limited.

 

[superchuck500]

Jackson Browne Tests Positive for Coronavirus

“It’s important for us all to be pretty forthcoming about what we’re going through,” singer-songwriter says

www.rollingstone.com

 

[Goatman Saint]

Consumer debt levels as well as corporate debt leves were at levels that the country had never seen going into all of this. The consumer was driving businesses who were growing using debt and debt was driving the consumer. Government debt is also reaching levels never seen before. This was ok when GDP was humming along but when that GDP shrinks all that debt suddenly becomes an obvious bubble that pops. In other words, our entire economy was being blown up by people living beyond their means so this stimulus is likely just going to be an temporary bridge to get through the next few weeks. The attempt here is to push the debt back 3 months for the consumer which then creates a 3 month gap without income going to lenders but the Fed is trying to create a bridge for the lenders to cover that 3 month gap. At some point the government will not be able to build any more bridges and the consumer is going to still have to pay the debt back, the lenders will still need those debt payments to operate. It just feels like we are trying to use debt to solve a debt problem created by a pandemic. I'm not saying we shouldn't do the fiscal package, it just feels like panic in an attempt to prevent the inevitable. Only way this works is if jobs aren't lost in mass.

This is an article, almost a year old, that shows just how much debt was ballooning. Since this article the FED dropped rates twice before even getting to the pandemic and drop to 0 so the debts levels went into overdrive the last 7 months.

U.S. consumer debt is now above levels hit during the 2008 financial crisis

Consumer debt has hit $14 trillion, a level some might find worrisome.

www.marketwatch.com

This whole thing is panic reinforcing panic because there was never enough of a plan of action going in, not clarity of message or a statement of how we need you to do x,y,z but food and such will still be available. It was done as a panicked reaction, fed through social media since there was no strong unifying voice with a clear message that ran from top down and was able to be relayed through media. Now we have a mess, and politicians are throwing everything against a wall to see what sticks.

 

[bclemms]

The income thing really depends on the local cost of living (and housing cost is the key factor) and whether the $150K is earned by one person or two (if it’s two, there are additional costs such as childcare, and twice the costs associated with working - like commute costs, work clothes, etc) . There are localities where $150K made in total by two people is very limited.

Those places are the ones with the higest population densities which are also the places being impacted the most by the virus. New York, San Fransisco, Seattle, Atlanta, Chicago.

It's amazing how many friends in cities wondered how I could live in rural Mississippi just a couple months ago that are suddenly envious. Several gun control friends have made statements about how they are coming to my house while my right leaning friends are upset that the Democrats are standing in the way of socialist fiscal policy.

The goepolotical psychology covid introduced has been nothing short of good entertainment in an otherwise horrible situation. It has absolutely stripped people of core beliefs in such a short period of time that most haven't had a chance to realize it.

I know plenty of people making well over that $150k level living paycheck to paycheck. If will be a miracle if all of them don't go bankrupt and that $1500 check wouldn't be enough to solve problems for a single one of them even in the short term.

 

[Rickboy]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2020/03/14/opinion/Racism-coronavirus-asians.amp.html

Our area in Colorado isn’t exactly known for this kind of stupidity but I am having my wife carry pepper spray when going to the grocery store. Not only for this but because people can get really stupid and potentially violent when faced with a stressful situation like this.