A starting teacher in Raleigh NC makes $39,900 while one in NYC makes $57,845

[dsc]

The average rent of a studio apartment in Raleigh is $855, to get the same in the Bronx is $1374. That alone eats up the about a third of the difference in salary. Assuming both are single and child free. The first teacher will get a full stimulus check under the plan being floated by the centrist Democrats, the 2nd won't get a single red cent. On what planet is that justifiable? On what planet is it not political mal practice to give teachers in red states money and refuse to give teachers in blue states money? I can't believe we are even entertaining this idea.

As a policy matter I would have preferred us to have no stimulus checks at all and instead pay unemployed people their full salaries and business owners their full revenues but that isn't what we ended up with. Given that, it is just stupid to treat our voters worse than the other parties in terms of what they are getting from the government. While neither of the teachers are living the life of Riley on their salaries, it is hard to make the case that 40k in Raleigh is significantly worse than nearly 60k in NYC. I just can't see why any senator from states such as IL, NY, NJ, MA and the like would agree to this.

[arlyellowdog]

1. I do agree that the checks shouldn't just be based on salary

There has to be thought put into things. Many people who don’t really need money got checks, while others got way too little. Unemployment is also a tricky issue. Many caretakers for disabled persons went on unemployment during this pandemic since they made more on unemployment than working. Advocates have begged for hero’s pay and protections instead. I do think that a lot of thought should be put into who is getting assistance.

[Happy Hoosier]

8. Why are people overthinking this?

Who cares if some folks get money they don’t “need”? Is that so terrible? No. What’s terrible is people who need it but don’t get it. People WAY overthinking this.k

[WhiskeyGrinder]

14. This. Give people money, the end.

[Lars39]

13. The object is to spend the money to help the economy, too.

I don't know why people don't understand that part of it.

[Captain Stern]

2. Stimulus checks.

I think we've managed to confuse the difference between stimulus checks, and aid that would be given to folks that are financially suffering from the pandemic. By 'we', I don't just mean me and you, but basically, most people.

Stimulus checks aren't issued to specifically help individuals, regardless of how they've been financially impacted by the pandemic. They are issued to help the economy. The idea behind issuing them is to give them to people that will spend them....right now. If stimulus checks are needed, it's best to get them out asap.

[SlogginThroughIt]

11. exactly

We are stimulating the economy. Not individuals. Stimulating the economy benefits everyone and everyone has a part to play in it.

[Hortensis]

3. They're foregoing means testing to get stimulus and aid out NOW,

not months from now. And just how would it fly to send smaller checks to everyone in the south and midwest, regardless of need, and bigger ones to the NE and west coast?

There are different sets of costs and benefits to every possible course of action, and wildly different degrees of possibility and impossibility to them all as well. This one was chosen by very unstupid people out of the very limited alternatives actually available to them in the real here and now.

Far from perfect? They all would be. Get the job done.

[ananda]

4. Cost of living is much higher in NY, I expect.

Still, teachers really do need to be paid more.

I was paid very well when I taught in Houston,
a rich city due to the energy sector; and the
TRS is well managed and funded even with
Reeps in charge. I cannot complain about that.

When I moved to Austin, it was something of a
shock to see that their teachers made about
$20,000 a year less for the same amount of
experience. They told me it was Robin Hood
but still....

[OrlandoDem2]

5. This is the problem with Manchin's proposal to limit the stimulus checks!

What about the West coast? What about Chicago and Miami?

[radius777]

6. Agree, this is asburd. Chris Hayes pleaded with Tim Kaine

the other night to 'please don't do this' because 2019 or even 2020 tax returns are not going to be reflective of the current situation that someone may be in right now.

The cutoff line at 75k individual and 150k for a couple as (iirc) it was with the CARES act should've been where we kept it at.

Lowering this threshold could hurt us with our base - which is urban and suburban voters - who exist all across the country including in swing states like WI, GA, PA, AZ etc where our voters turned out.

[Bettie]

7. And STIMULUS means getting money to people who will spend it, full stop

75/150k isn't "upper income" and those people will SPEND the money.

Spending money creates economic activity...it stimulates the economy.

That's what Stimulus actually means.

All lowering it at this point will do is make a bunch of people think they were screwed over by Democrats, which is the goal of the "moderate" republicans.

[SlogginThroughIt]

12. Ding Ding Ding!!!!

This is spot on!

[JHB]

9. Just send out the checks to everyone and tax it back for those too well-off to "deserve" it

And why the hell is $50K the magic line when not all that many years ago the big question was "Is $250K 'rich'?"

Not to mention basing it on 2019 income when so many people saw their income nosedive in 2020.

[aikoaiko]

15. Business owners with their full revenue? I couldn't support that.

Revenue would include massive profit margins in some cases. And in many cases where businesses were impacted by COVID, their expenses have been cut, too. Your proposal would be a massive corporate (small and large) giveaway.

Having said that, I think a zipcode-based cost of living multiplier wouldn't be too difficult and even out some of the issues you identify with individual checks. Zipcodes are in the same data-bases as the AGI.

You ask why any senator from states such as IL, NY, NJ, MA and the like would agree to this. Two answers: 1. Because they did for the first two rounds. 2. Each of these states also have rural areas that these same Senators represent just as much as their urban constituents.

[Happy Hoosier]

17. But how do you know?

They are basing this stuff off of 2019 numbers. I made about 25% less last year due to restrictions in overtime and a furlough period. My company is slowly making up the furlough money, but I will not recover lost OT, and during the furlough I gutted my savings and racked up a bunch of debt. I was not eligible for the first stimulus because of 2019 income and won't get this one either. But I'll tell ya, while $1400 would not get me in the black, it would help.

But people are being far too precious about this.

[aikoaiko]

20. Yes, that is a problem with using AGI from 2019.

[roamer65]

16. If I get a check, I am gonna spend it.

Period.

[My Pet Orangutan]

18. When the rent / mortgage is overdue,

$1,400 does not look too generous.

[edhopper]

19. Is it based on

Adjusted Gross Income or Taxable Income?

Also it is phased out over $50,000 not eliminated. So the teacher would still get most of it.

[leftstreet]

21. DURec