They did not. Well a little bit with PPA loans, but that was more business targeted.
The main issue was causing inflation, which increased the values of assets, which rich people have the most (real estate, stock, cryptocurrency, luxury cars, etc...).
I think the governments wrong doing was shutting down work for low income earners (restaurants, gyms, etc...). And then trying to help with stimulus checks, but sending it income based rather then if you still had a good paying job. I got a stimulus check but absolutely did not need it. I used mine to book a flight to Texas in 2020 with my family and enjoy a nice week of water parks (we all had covid prior).
Targeting businesses…which are more often owned by richer people than poorer people. I know lots of business owners that made out very well from PPP (myself included).
The whole thing was an exercise in ensuring the social ordering remained in place. Otherwise, the government easily could have given people more cash, rather than go via their bosses.
> Almost all PPP loans are expected to be forgiven with 94% of eligible small businesses in the U.S. receiving one or more loans under the program. Roughly 25% of PPP loan funds went directly to workers who would have lost their jobs. The rest (75%) went to business owners, shareholders, creditors, and suppliers of companies receiving loans.
> Most of the negative outcome is blamed on the untargeted nature of the program due to the lack of administrative capacity in the U.S. to administer a program of this type.
>Ultimately some percentage of PPP loan funds that went to businesses reinforced the company's bottom line in the form of windfall profit.
This kinda scares me you are screening out Google Voice Numbers. Google Voice was my primary phone number for over 5 years, I had a real phone number but I was always giving out only Google Voice. Google Voice is a very powerful tool:
* your phone number keeps working even if you lose your phone (I could still answer phone calls when my phone broke).
* Traveling abroad is a breeze, just change sim cards on arrival and your US phone number still works via data on Google Voice. No need for expensive travel passes, and you get to choose your operator that has a lot more data.
* Having full SMS & call support on a website is very nice, I always hate typing with the phone. iMessage doesn't solve everything since you need a mac (I frequently switch OS & devices).
Also I think e-sims will make lying and fraud much more common. A month ago chatgpt was denying creating a work account for me because I've already had this phone number associated with my previous account. And they were blocking Google Voice. I went to USMobile.com, payed 7$ to create an esim with another phone number, and I had sms with a second phone number on my phone working in less than 10 minutes.
"I missed BTC big time and been kicking myself ever since"
Why are you selling then? I'm kicking myself too for not buying bitcoin at 8$, but now I just accumulate. I buy doge at 40 cents, at 20 cents, at 0.05 cents. If it goes to 1$ I won't sell.
As a US based customer I will move away from you. You are potentially shutting down voices in Russia. Maybe an anti-putin blogger will just give up blogging because of this. You are destroying what remains of the free internet of the 90s.
And just to make it clear, I 100% agree with sanctions against Russia such as even shutting down things like Google Pay. Your action here is just dumb and not well thought.
As a US based Namecheap customer for over 5 years, that supports Ukraine, I will be moving somewhere else, this in my opinion is not a way to do business. Internet needs to remain free. I live in NY and Namecheap is in Arizona, will I get banned one day when Namecheap disagrees with an action by the NY government?
