$1,200 by Zach Teti

Thu, Apr 2, 2020

Read in 3 minutes

Philadelphia Hub, Pennsylvania, USA Originally from Pennsylvania, USA

My grandmother used to give my cousins and I money on Christmas… it was very generous. I liked the money, used to be in the form of a check… $100, but I remember her beautiful script writing more vividly: “Love, Mom Mom.” I’m not great at expressing gratitude when I’m given a gift. Now that I’m almost 30, I’d rather not even receive a gift to avoid the social interaction that involves my outward expression of appreciation. This past Christmas, I told my mother to tell her siblings they didn’t need to give me anything anymore. I do appreciate gifts… it’s just three decades of that ritual is too much!

I was sent a “link” to a reputable news source. I input my income and age into a short questionnaire. It was confirmed that I would be eligible for a federal government endowment of $1,200. I felt no excitement in reading this, only mild confusion. In the United States, the idea of a $1,200 “hand-out” manifested in the past week. Either it’s real or it’s not. I’m fairly certain it is real. If it isn’t real, what an odd false hope… but like I said, I’m fairly certain it is real – “for eligible Americans who filed returns in 2018 and 2019.” At the moment, I’m OK – my “direct deposit” salary hit my bank account today. My exposure to the stock market doesn’t look pretty. People took cash out of stocks… put them in safe vehicles like US Treasury notes… and the US government just spat it right back. A $2 trillion stimulus plan… giddy up.

There is an economic concept called compensating variation. If a price changes for a good that a consumer prefers, perhaps due to tax policy, compensating variation represents a quantitative solution which returns that consumer to their original utility (or level of happiness). The individual is compensated to return to their original utility, which is equivalent to the level of utility if the event hadn’t happened…

What an unprecedented “compensation…” cash to sit tight. We’ve been working so hard… paying our taxes… stressing ourselves out because that’s how you survive in the 21st century… rat race, dog eat dog… to pay the tax man, who (in a pandemic event) can dole out a seemingly arbitrary endowment to… everybody that works and files their taxes. Does this demonstrate what it’s like to be in a capitalist machine? Maybe it’s a good thing… $1,200. Is this a unique relationship that Americans have with their government? Are other governments keeping their tax payers afloat like this?

I was surprised by the idea of this offering with all that’s happening … I’d understand really beefing up unemployment benefits. When the economic impact is this widespread, maybe it’s figured that literally everybody is taking a hit, essentially is “unemployment benefits.” Maybe I’m putting an excessive emphasis on this… will be looking out for it in the mail either way… not expecting it to say: “Love, the US Government