US Stimulus Approved! Discussion thread

[GDRRiley]

yay being a college kid so 0 money round 2.

the 600$ is a joke, it should really be 2-3k per adult and dependents under 25

if I had actually gotten anything it wouldn't be a bad start to fund an apartment or whatever my living situation will be in the fall when I move back to college. I'm not tossing another 16-20k a year for room and board in the dorms. 

my AMD stock after just shy of 2 years has made me enough for a down payment without hitting my main college savings.

[CommanderAlex]

16 hours ago, comander said:

"Good news gamers, free money"

 

Me: not eligible for checks, inflation will eat at income, taxes will likely go up in the long run

Especially if you're a dependent/college student and had a part time job that was affected by COVID. 

[Donut417]

Read somewhere the president might VETO the bill. Supposedly he thinks $600 isn’t enough. Plus I guess a lot of people are pissed over the other inclusions in the bill. Mainly the foreign aid.

[Minicoop]

4 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

Read somewhere the president might VETO the bill. Supposedly he thinks $600 isn’t enough. Plus I guess a lot of people are pissed over the other inclusions in the bill. Mainly the foreign aid.

It makes no sense why they would target a package to 'bolster' the American economy only to allow a huge amount to go to other foreign countries. If it is a citizen based thing make it about the people and have all the other spending be something all to itself. I feel it was a rushed thing to fit things in that they had on their agenda but just pushed it off to far I mean who knows what other spending of this magnitude could have happened the last time around.

[bcredeur97]

do your part to fight inflation and buy cryptocurrency or gold with it, lol. it effectively takes the printed money right out of the system

[SpaceGhostC2C]

13 hours ago, handymanshandle said:

You mean to tell me that they're gonna blow almost a trillion dollars on a "stimulus" bill and all the average Joe gets is a $600 check 

To put things in perspective, the US has 330 million people, 80 grownups. If basically everyone gets a check, it's $198 billion in total. Since not literally everyone will get it, we could reduce it to adults only (then again, there are dependent benefits. But to get a lower bound, since 100% of the population is an upper bound), that would amount to $154 billion. Rounding again, we're in the ballpark of 20% of the bill going directly to households pockets.

 

That's just to get a sense of the proportions, I'll leave it to you and everyone else to decide whether that's a reasonable allocation, or there should be no bill, or there should be nothing but direct payments to households in it. Just counting beans here  

[SpaceGhostC2C]

12 minutes ago, bcredeur97 said:

do your part to fight inflation

Fight inflation? I don't think you've been paying attention to the economic situation in the US  

 

12 minutes ago, bcredeur97 said:

buy cryptocurrency or gold with it, lol. it effectively takes the printed money right out of the system

No it doesn't. Spending money doesn't "take it out of the system", it only takes it out of your pocket, but puts it into someone else's. That's true whether you buy groceries, precious metals, or snake oil.

[steelo]

No mention of student loan deferment though (at least from the news I've read)

 

If they don't extend it past January 31st, a lot of people are going to be hurting...BADLY. My wife and I paid off ours years ago, but it got to the point where we were paying almost $700/month...it's almost criminal how much education racks up debt in America.

[Donut417]

1 hour ago, Minicoop said:

It makes no sense why they would target a package to 'bolster' the American economy only to allow a huge amount to go to other foreign countries. If it is a citizen based thing make it about the people and have all the other spending be something all to itself. I feel it was a rushed thing to fit things in that they had on their agenda but just pushed it off to far I mean who knows what other spending of this magnitude could have happened the last time around.

This wasn’t about just a stimulus. They also funded the government thru next September. As well as the aid packages. The grants for internet and other things. 

[Donut417]

3 minutes ago, steelo said:

it's almost criminal how much education racks up debt in America.

That why the government needs to stop the loans. When these institutions no longer have government backed loans their prices will decrease as enrollment will decrease. 

[steelo]

5 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

That why the government needs to stop the loans. When these institutions no longer have government backed loans their prices will decrease as enrollment will decrease. 

I seriously doubt it will receive enough support (at least not anytime soon)

[Donut417]

Just now, valdyrgramr said:

Warren actually helped cut predatory approaches years ago, but under the new administration they were pushing for predatory approaches.  My school tried tricking me into applying for loans I didn't even need.

Because the government is the the Lanisters. They alway pay their debts. LOL. They wanted that government money. 

[steelo]

3 minutes ago, valdyrgramr said:

Always loved how DeVos had a shit eating grin on while saying yes to predatory approaches.

Nevertheless, they really need to extend the deferments until the vaccine is distributed and America is (relatively) back to normal. I know quite a few couples relying on only one source of income right now.

 

I couldn't imagine paying $20k a year in tuition while receiving a half-assed education via skype.

[PlayStation 2]

1 hour ago, valdyrgramr said:

There's one person behind the cut from 1200, but if you want to be technical his lackies of a certain party also wanted the cut.  I don't support either side, but that's why the Senate wouldn't pass it previously.

  Reveal hidden contents

Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell

 

He can go fuck himself too, but everyone wanted to stuff some bullshit into the bill. Let's keep it 100, both parties wanted to blow ~$700bn on random bullshit, and a fair bit of that $700bn on other countries. American citizens are the ones hurting in America, not fucking Israelis in their own land or Pakistanis clamoring to learn gender studies.

[spartaman64]

3 minutes ago, handymanshandle said:

He can go fuck himself too, but everyone wanted to stuff some bullshit into the bill. Let's keep it 100, both parties wanted to blow ~$700bn on random bullshit, and a fair bit of that $700bn on other countries. American citizens are the ones hurting in America, not fucking Israelis in their own land or Pakistanis clamoring to learn gender studies.

thats not what it is at all its a program to help women get access to education in general and along with other stuff like combating violence against women etc. its amazing that people still don't understand what foreign aid does if america wants to take a backseat then a couple of other countries would be more than happy to take america's place in "wasting money on foreign countries"

[PlayStation 2]

5 minutes ago, spartaman64 said:

thats not what it is at all its a program to help women get access to education in general and along with other stuff like combating violence against women etc. its amazing that people still don't understand what foreign aid does if america wants to take a backseat then a couple of other countries would be more than happy to take america's place in "wasting money on foreign countries"

What it does is divert money from where it's actually needed. We've fucked up the Middle East enough as it is, why try to patch it up with a band-aid?

[dizmo]

On 12/21/2020 at 11:33 PM, panzersharkcat said:

Put that towards the next version of this modded X230 with a 16:10 display. He's making one with a custom motherboard with either Tiger Lake U or Renoir CPUs, IIRC. It'd be a nice upgrade over even the third-gen quad core CPUs he can solder onto the original motherboards and have a lower TDP.

Have you ever used one before? I had one, and the design of it is horrible for typing.

On 12/21/2020 at 11:36 PM, Mooshi said:

For those that actually need it, $600 is a god damned joke.

It's not really just meant to prop up those that can't get by, it's meant to stimulate spending. If everyone just saved their money, the entire economy would have a real chance of a very deep recession that would be hard to get back from.

On 12/21/2020 at 11:40 PM, Letgomyleghoe said:

500 billion for Iraq... only about 300 billion is actually going to u.s citizens, most of it’s going to other countries.

 

I’m gonna put it towards my savings for a Subaru BRZ

If you're referring to the entire amount of aid given to Iraq over the past 10 or 20 years, that's a pretty stupid way to calculate it.

On 12/22/2020 at 12:05 AM, piratemonkey said:

Really? Like foreign aid? Or what

He was likely referring to all of the aid given to them over the last 20 years.

13 hours ago, TetraSky said:

Wait, how are you even eligible to receive this "stimulus" money if you're still working?

 

Does the US just hand out that check to everybody ? If so, no wonder they only gave a single $1000 check before, instead of sending one every month.

At least in Canada, we had to be unemployed because of Covid or unable to find a job because of it. If you were working, you weren't eligible, unless you made under a certain amount.

Stimulus isn't only meant for those that can't make ends meet. It's to stimulate the economy. If you were saving because you're worried, and were still working, then you might see a stimulus check as money you can spend, thus it helps prop up the economy some. The US still had the same thing Canada does in terms of those laid off from work because of COVID.

3 hours ago, TetraSky said:

Wait, because they reduced your hours, they are taking away your PTO ?

I knew the US was shit on that side of things as far as employee benefits go, but that's just ridiculous.

In Canada, we're still getting our vacation time, even if your hours were cut. We got labor laws for a reason.

 

For example:

https://www.cnt.gouv.qc.ca/en/leaves-and-absences/vacation/index.html

This would apply to reduced hours as well. Doesn't matter how many hours you work in a week, as long as you've worked for over a year, you're entitled to vacation.

To be fair, you're quoting the way it's calculated, not the amount of money you get. It just means you won't see less than the 4% of wages earned.

3 hours ago, Andreas Lilja said:

https://thehill.com/homenews/news/531389-pelosi-responds-to-trump-lets-push-for-2k-checks-this-week?fbclid=IwAR0f1ErjBRT6C8V0YW6Zr989DqVccjbOQTWzC1S1XXC6bMT7_hDWleGaqKY

 

Goddamned Americans, I want free cash too.

"Free." It'll come back in increased taxes down the line. It also helps that the US economy is many, many times larger than Canada's

[panzersharkcat]

10 hours ago, dizmo said:

Have you ever used one before? I had one, and the design of it is horrible for typing.

Yes. I used to have one. (Sold it somebody who got his T440p stolen because he forgot to take it out of his car and left the door unlocked overnight.) It took me some getting used to because my palms kept sliding off, After I got used to it, I rather liked it. Lots of ports in a very compact form factor. Really, though, in the immediate future, I'm going to go do a T430. I can swap out to a quad-core CPU without having to pay somebody to solder a new one on. I also found out I don't need to pay somebody to solder on an adapter board to get a 1080p IPS display. Just need the FHD kit. It'll be a lot cheaper and I get an actual palm rest. (I do want that "X3300" in the future, though. Not enough ThinkPad.)

[dizmo]

18 minutes ago, panzersharkcat said:

Yes. I used to have one. (Sold it somebody who got his T440p stolen because he forgot to take it out of his car and left the door unlocked overnight.) It took me some getting used to because my palms kept sliding off, After I got used to it, I rather liked it. Lots of ports in a very compact form factor. Really, though, in the immediate future, I'm going to go do a T430. I can swap out to a quad-core CPU without having to pay somebody to solder a new one on. I also found out I don't need to pay somebody to solder on an adapter board to get a 1080p IPS display. Just need the FHD kit. It'll be a lot cheaper and I get an actual palm rest. (I do want that "X3300" in the future, though. Not enough ThinkPad.)

Is it actually cheaper than just buying something like a T460? They're not that expensive.

[panzersharkcat]

28 minutes ago, dizmo said:

Is it actually cheaper than just buying something like a T460? They're not that expensive.

Probably not but this is just a hobby thing. Plus, T460 can't be modded with the classic keyboard. (I already have a T440p and a specced out P53.) If I wanted a T460 or a T460p, I would have gotten one. I picked up a T460p on Facebook Marketplace for $250 for a friend. It had an i7-6820HQ, 940MX, 16 GB of RAM, and 512 GB SSD. Just had to clean it off, blow out the dust, and change out the thermal paste.