Billionaires and corporations have actually increased their wealth considerably during the pandemic and we’re debating whether we should give struggling individuals $600 per week.

Since the start of the pandemic, the total net worth of the 643 U.S. billionaires climbed from $2.9 trillion to $3.5 trillion. During the same period, $6.5 trillion in household wealth has disappeared and 45.5 million Americans have filed for unemployment. (Source: Forbes) Jeff Bezos added $13 billion to his personal worth in just one day. 

The CARES Act authorizes the Treasury Secretary to spend up to $877 billion in taxpayer money helping corporations, large and small.  There has been little real oversight on these bailouts and loans and the government disclosure of which corporations actually received this money is startling. (Source: The Guardian)

The Paycheck Protection Program, which provided $349 billion in low interest loans, was supposed to help small companies survive, but instead paid money to large corporations due to lack of oversight and regulations. (Source: NY Times)

By taxing just the richest 400 people in America we could: 

- Give $10K to every American Household

- Pay for COVID testing for every American

- Provide clean drinking water and waste disposal to every human on earth

- Eliminate all federal taxes on households earning less than $80k/yr

And those 400 people would STILL BE BILLIONAIRES.

(Source, and a great visual aid)