An Illusory Promise

The sickness pervading America was rampant well before the coronavirus ever appeared.  However, its arrival has ripped the cloak of concealment from several nasty symptoms of a society that has a lot more wrong with it than we ever imagined.  A pandemic has no guile.  It strikes and all efforts to ‘happy talk’ it into submission fail simply because illness and death have no allegiance to a political party.

Such is the case in today’s America, and perhaps one of the most glaring symptoms of failure to date is the fallacious promise to rescue our economy by supporting small business.  There is no support for small business, or if there is, it is only a public relations mirage.  Over the past 6 weeks since our national nightmare began, Congress has passed legislation that purportedly was going to sustain small businesses in America to the tune of $650 Billion by offering payroll protection so small businesses could maintain their staffs and try to ride out the economic devastation.  This "rescue" loan funding has brought out the very worst of a corporate cultural that is sick to the very core of its being.

First of all, the CARES PPP legislation falsely defined small businesses as any enterprise with less than 500 employees.  How many ‘small businesses’ can you name with 500 employees?  It was a mistake, or maybe a planned ruse, so that major companies and the banks who charged exorbitant fees to place these loans could greedily lap up the money that most of them didn’t really need.  Ask around!  How many small businesses in your immediate universe have gotten any of these so-called payroll protection loans?  I couldn’t learn of any where I am living.  And this salvation was supposed to arrive in time to prevent really small businesses from having to declare bankruptcy or simply close their doors.  After the public outcry that the major banks were giving preference to their major depositors after the initial tranche of money ran out, Congress came back and allocated another tranche of cash.  We are supposed to see this subsequent effort begin next week to support the beleaguered small businesses desperate for the money to sustain them.  Critics are predicting that that pot o’ dough will disappear just as fast into the clutches of the entities that need it the least.  We’ll see…..

I applied for the PPP from 4 different banking entities as soon as the program was announced at the end of March:  Bank of America( who first told me that they wouldn’t accept my application because I didn’t have a loan with them—even though I had been a faithful customer for the past 5 years); a regional local bank FFIB, who advertised immediately that they would accept new customers; a small local bank in central Florida called Fountainhead Bank; and the Achieva Credit Union.  I figured at least one of these entities would deliver what would be 2 ½ months of payroll for my small company.  I carefully completed the applications and delivered all the documents to each of them.

Here we are 5 weeks later and one by one they each were ‘sorry to inform me’ that the funds had all run out before my application could be processed.  Really?  So now I will patiently wait to see what other greedy ‘small’ businesses will inhale the newly provided funds. 

How many small entities like me do you suppose have the same story?  Well here are some stats that should give you some insight into what this kind of ‘support’ means:

-- There are 15,000,000 business entities in the US with less than 100 employees and 100,000 businesses between 100 and 500 employees.

-- 45% of the relief funds went to 4% of the businesses who applied, all of whom have over 100 employees.

-- The top 15 banks will pocket over $1 Billion in processing fees.

Congress approves giving these same banks more money with the same rules in place.

-- The vast majority of small businesses who tried to apply were kept in limbo and didn’t see a dime of relief (86% still waiting for relief).

And here is an article from this morning's New York Times that highlights all of this:

https://tinyurl.com/ybwqty2o

So much for our country supporting the individual entrepreneur! 

Here is another symptom and failure: the debacle of the unemployment claim mechanism.  All of us who work, pay unemployment insurance taxes.  In my case I have been paying those taxes for 50 years.  I have never claimed unemployment relief.  Because the new rules allowed claims by owners and independent contractors, the time has come for me to do so, at least while I wait for the PPP loan to materialize.  In Florida, unemployment relief amounts are less than 40% of whatever your current salary is on a weekly basis up to a maximum of $275 /week, and then only for 13 weeks.  The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity Re-employment Program requires that you complete their online registration and claim form to be eligible to receive benefits.

Florida’s FDEO reported Friday that just under 22% of the nearly 702,000 unique claims filed since March 15 were being paid -- just under 154,000 people. That's up from Monday, when the share was only 6.2%.  While many states have struggled to handle the crush of the more than 26 million Americans filing initial jobless claims amid the coronavirus pandemic, Florida has faced particular problems. A recent Associated Press analysis showed Florida ranked at or near the bottom of all states in its speed of processing claims. 

People attempting to navigate the website for registration are terribly frustrated.  The site, which former governor and now Senator Rick Scott is responsible for creating (at the low, low price of $77million!) repeatedly crashes.  Applicants literally spend hours and hours waiting for the site to progress through all the pages, dutifully filling out the information, only to be crashed out of the site before they can submit the forms.  Then they have to start all over again from the beginning!  No one ever answers the phone at FDEO, so there is no human to offer information or support.

This kind of experience is not unique to Florida either.  Unemployment claim systems nationwide are struggling to handle the demand of 26 million citizens trying to find support and solace from a mechanism that is designed to help them, but instead fails.

While Congress and the President throw bouquets at themselves, exclaiming how wonderful they are for supporting the economic community, we are all still waiting to see any tangible result.  It seems the only ones they are truly interested in supporting are the companies who contributed the most to their political campaigns.  The ‘little guys’ out there are still standing in the rain with their hands out waiting for the much touted financial relief.

So what is the moral of this little story?  I think the Coronavirus pandemic is going to change our society.  If we can at least salvage our right to vote (which is by no means certain!), we are going to see a change in what the general populace considers fairness and good governance, come the election this fall.  With the failures and lies of the past three years as a backdrop, the majority of Americans are beginning to understand what government is supposed to do and what kind of people are supposed to be there to do it.  They are looking at the legislators and all the representatives who are only interested in lining their own pockets, and coming to the realization that we have been ‘played’ for years. 

This fall’s election hopefully will usher in a new era.  We have a chance to change our government; to wipe away the gangrenous rot and mold that has disfigured the model that the founders created 250 years ago.  We can choose to remake our democratic society with more people like Joe Biden, Andrew Cuomo, Barak Obama, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, et al.  We can rid ourselves of people like Mitch McConnell, Donald Trump, Kevin McCarthy, Devin Nunes, et. al.

And whatever you think, please don’t try injectable Lysol!