America has no fire drill for economic uncertainty. What is going to happen today, April 1st, in the middle of an unprecedented pandemic, when everyone's rent, mortgages, and bills are due?

There is no single and immediate template for how to survive a financial crisis in general. People do not know how to act. People are panicking, hoarding, fearful. With good reason. We know what to do during a tornado warning: go to the lowest floor, stay away from windows. Sadly, a new generation knows what to do during a school shooting. There are best practices in place. But not for this.

With no existing and immediate safety net in a nation largely shut down, the reality of the financial brutality of American life for millions is revealing itself. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin stated Sunday that Americans could live on $17 per day. He estimates the one-time $1200 stimulus check will be disbursed “within the next three weeks.”

As someone who currently lives on $1200 per month due to disability, I can tell you that even the seasoned and resourceful poor, like myself, can barely make that work and then only because my landlord is a friend who charges me just $500 per month for an entire house. My employed friends and family with $1500+ rents and mortgages are not going to be OK on $17 per day without losing their homes or their minds. It is all too little, too late.

Meanwhile new applicants for unemployment are finding crashed application portals, confusing qualifiers and exceptions, and even if they are able to apply successfully, it takes about three weeks for cash benefits to arrive. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/04/01/social-security-for-all-for.html