Here’s Why the GOP Doesn’t Care About Pumping More Relief Money Into the Pandemic Economy

I’m having a little trouble finding something both new and interesting to write about today, but luckily for us all the Fed released its latest Flow of Funds report this morning. I may have some additional interesting tidbits to write about later, but for now here’s the basic distribution of national income:

Apologies for the chart being so busy, but the results are pretty clear. As you can see, corporate profits have recovered completely from their pandemic low and proprieters’ income has not only recovered but skyrocketed. Both are at or above their trendline growth from before the pandemic.

And then there’s employee compensation. That’s you and me and all the wait staff and retail employees and so forth who are still furloughed while we wait for the economy to open back up. Employee compensation has not recovered. It’s about $40 billion below its pre-pandemic trendline growth. But hey, what’s $40 billion between friends?

Answer: Quite a bit, actually! This is mostly income lost by those who have been furloughed, which amounts to something like 10 million workers. That comes to an average of about $4,000 each, which is why a one-off $600 stimulus payment is laughable to these folks. Conversely, an extra $300 a week for three months would make them nearly whole.

But as long as corporate profits are doing OK, Republicans just can’t be bothered with this kind of petty detail. I guess that’s why they’re the party of the regular guy, or so I keep hearing from them.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate