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Saturday, April 18, 2020

The Little Guy Needs Help Too - So I'm Asking for It

CW: language

That's 'guy' in a gender-neutral blanket term sense.

And no, I'm not talking about the truly down-and-out folks here. "People who go broke in a big way never miss any meals. It is the poor jerk who is shy half a slug who must tighten his belt." ~Lazarus Long, Time Enough for Love, Robert Heinlein. The safety net is there if you look hard enough for the broke-in-a-big-way folks. 

And evidently, it's there for the medium-sized Little Guy as well, as the "small business" loans coming out of the stimulus package are apparently being granted to the under-500-employees (expanded from under-50-employees) businesses before the smaller groups. I mean, sure, it's anecdotal, but I have anecdotes from six different local business owners (running the gamut from personal services like physical therapy and event planning to goods like bakeries and children's clothing) that they applied for the small business loans as soon as the applications were available, jumped through all the hoops, and at the end of the day were told... nope. "Sorry, but these other (bigger) companies requested larger (probably) loans earlier (no, not unless the loan institutions put the smaller loans at the bottom on the pile), so there's not three grand left for you to retrofit your business to sell x online. Sorry! Please come again!"

This. Is. Wrong.

And it's ass-backward.

We're told to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps... but then they steal the boots they promised and sell them to someone else at a profit. I'm not a communist, I'm not even a proper socialist, but I'm certainly not a 21st-century capitalist. This shit is suicidal in the long run and maybe even in the short term.

I've been in this boat on a personal level most of my adult (and all of my parenting) life. I make (just) enough and I own a (mobile) home (with a mortgage) so I do *have* assets. The fact that I can't liquefy these assets to buy food and medical care in our beyond-shitty so-called "system" is beside the point. 

But this isn't about me. And I am definitely not advocating for "reopening the economy" when there is still a very real risk of all your customers dying.

People are so concerned about their livelihoods that they risk their lives and those of their fellow humans. And they've been convinced to do so by our Dear Leader, who is literally inciting to riot and the people who are supposed to be keeping a leash on him are waving a red flag in front of him instead. 

This. Is. Wrong.

And many of you people who support him... you claim to be Christians. Shame on you.

I'm rambling, and I'm sure I'll get trolled by a bunch of not-all apologists and the folks who think their right to X supersedes my right to breathe in and out, and you know what? I'm beyond fucking caring at this point.

I'm starting a fundraiser. I don't mind doing it, but I'm pissed as hell it needs to be done by me, a random private citizen, so I can disburse it to people and small businesses  I think really need it. If my government doesn't give a shit about the little guy, I will.


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