We’ll be receiving our checks soon. Big fat $1200 checks. From the government, no less.
As part of the multi-trillion dollar stimulus, DC decided to give every American adult a $1200 boost. Children will receive $500. That means a family of four can expect a nice $3400 bump sometime in the next few months.
Many Americans are in need of such funds. To pay rent. To buy food. To fill in the gaps where reduced hours or layoffs have left them, as though in a ditch to die, an economic casualty of the rampaging coronavirus. For them, a few thousand dollars will be a game-changer. A life-preserver. A way out of the ditch.
Plenty of Americans will need much more than the government will give. In an urban center like Chicago, a one-time $1200 tip is nice, but it won’t get you too far with your landlord.
But then there are other Americans–many others–who are working full-time remote. Who have investments, trending down though they may be. Who have cushion and fallback strategies. For them, the stimulus check will be a fun pick-me-up in a time of frustration, maybe a little extra spending money or a tiny bonus. Maybe we’d seed a college fund? Splurge at one of the local businesses that survives? In any case, it’s nice, but it isn’t needed.
For those in this third group–who would like to receive an unexpected chunk of change from Uncle Sam but who certainly don’t need it to keep the lights on–we would do well to consider giving this perk to those who truly need it.
Could we give it to our most vulnerable neighbors?
Could we give it to someone who lost his job?
Someone who lost her business?
Could we spring for protective gear for the hospitals that are currently missing it?
Give it to a charity, to aid work, to a church that’s really looking to feed sheep?
I don’t think this should be a matter of guilt. We’re falling into some money; that’s great. No shame in keeping it. But a global crisis is also the perfect time to be generous, to care for widows and orphans.
God loves a cheerful giver.
Can you cheerfully donate your stimulus check, preferably not out of a sense of should, but out of a grateful can? What if many upper and upper-middle class Americans teamed up to pool our giving? Think of what could be done with a trillion-dollar coordinated giving effort? A billion-dollar give?
I don’t know what this looks like. I don’t know if it happens at all. But it certainly can happen. And it seems like it would be beautiful. I’d love to hear ideas for coordination, collaboration, and doing this wisely. Bless you.
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