We are all familiar with the Statue of Liberty. We understand she stands for freedom and hope. Most can recall words attributed to the Statue. "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teaming shore." This is the invitation she sends out. However this is not what the Statue truly represents. Look at the feet of the Statue and you will see broken chains and shackles. These represent the abolition of slavery, freedom from oppression, freedom to exercise our God given rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Under the current crisis brought on by the CCP Virus, these shackles have once more been placed on Americans throughout the country. While the Federal Government has issued guidelines, state governments have seen fit to turn these guidelines in to edicts mandating we refrain from working and earning a livelihood for our families. They have restricted our ability to perform all manner of activities from fishing, dining out, going to the barbershop or salon or enjoying the company of friends and family. Small businesses around the country have been forced to close on an arbitrary bases. Hardware stores may remain open but bicycle repair shops are closed. Pubs and bars are closed but liquor stores remain open. Car dealerships are open. Movie theaters are closed. Clothing stores are closed. At last count this has left more than 26 million without work and that is just those who have filed for unemployment.
Government attempts to placate us by offering us money $1200 stimulus checks. The median rent across the US is $1197 for a 2 bedroom apartment and average utilities is $240. Add on to this a car payment, groceries, and other monthly expenses the typical family may have and the stimulus doesn't seem like a stimulus at all for those out of work. Then the government offers to protect our incomes through the Paycheck Protection Program. A program so fraught with loopholes that every major franchise corporation in the country has been able to qualify. Corporations holding millions of dollars in assets and cash reserves have been able to obtain the greater portion of the money available. While the small mom and pop business with fewer than 15 employees is left hanging out to dry. Some simple math shows this to be the case. 45% of the funds went to those requesting $1 million or more. This is equivalent to a $100,000 payroll per week. In March of this year the average wage per hour had reached $24. Employer taxes on this for the state of Florida is 7.15%. This means the employer pays out $25.70 for every hour the employee works, excluding any overhead or benefit costs. $100,000 divided by 40 hours per week is $2,500 and this divided by $25.70 is the number of employees or 97.28 employees. Does this really sound to you like a small business. Does the restaurant you used to go to prior to the crisis have 97 employees? Does your barber? Your hair dresser? Your pizza parlor? Your favorite hangout? Your favorite boutique? The maximum an employer could request was $10 million. Using simple reasoning this employer would have to have been paying the same number of employees 10 times more in wages or $240 per hour, or had 10 times as many employees 970 but the maximum number of employees was capped at 500 so those 500 employees would have to have been earning twice as much or $48 per hour. What mom and pop, corner business pays its employees $48 an hour or even $24, This money was never intended to get into the hands of small business.
When the government was caught in their blatant attempt to fool the American people they quickly came up with a plan to add additional funds to the program. This they say will not have the same issues as the previous distribution of funds. Yet the same banks are in charge of the distribution. The same banks that have not been held accountable for the first round of distribution. Has anything really changed?
Change will only come by the Citizens of America demanding the return of the rights we are afforded under the Constitution. There is no justification and no legal basis for the lockdown or stay at home orders. Quarantines, in the past, were meant to keep the infected from circulating among the healthy. They were never meant to keep the healthy from going about providing for their families.