Government the big winner of CARES

Government, not businesses and workers, is the big winner in the stimulus package. Out of $2 Trillion I’m thinking about ¼ goes right back to government agencies—federal, state, local. I saw two very minor examples in the last 5 minutes just looking through my mail.

1) The Dean of the Library School at U of I (my school, and it has a different name now) Eunice Santos did a study published as a chapter in a technology proceedings in 2013 on the 2009 pandemic which originated in Mexico (and from her photo and name she is Hispanic), and it has been resurrected as some sort of modeling technique for this covid pandemic. https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-spie/8711/1/Modeling-emergent-border-crossing-behaviors-during-pandemics/10.1117/12.2018201.short?SSO=1 What this has to do with libraries, I have no idea, but I do know there will now be more funding.

2) And here’s another: “April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month.  Child abuse takes place in every part of the population and takes many forms.  Children suffer from neglect, endure physical and sexual abuse, are exploited by pornographers and sex traffickers, and become collateral victims of drug abuse and other types of maltreatment every single day in America.  Fortunately, Children’s Advocacy Centers (CACs) across the nation are providing critical services to these young victims and helping to safeguard their legal rights, especially during this national COVID-19 pandemic.”

Obviously, this tragedy of child abuse and sex trafficking takes place every day and night, but there will be more money to study the other studies because of Covid19. And Mexicans fleeing Mexico during the 2009 pandemic will somehow be considered relevant to a model of the Covid19 pandemic—although no one will ever read it—it will be funded as part of this package.

Please, Mr. President, stop the insanity and put people back to work and get them off the government dole before the government sops up all the aid.

https://www.ncsl.org/ncsl-in-dc/publications-and-resources/coronavirus-stimulus-bill-states.aspx