America’s financial system, as highlighted by the COVID 19 pandemic.

COVID 19 hits the economy; the average American loses job or has hours drastically cut. They fall behind on credit cards and rent. They ask the banks for a loan to get them through this tough time. The banks tell them their current income doesn’t qualify. They tell the banks their income is only down because of the pandemic. The banks tell them they were fiscally irresponsible; they should have been planning for a rainy day; this is why they’re a bad risk. They fall further behind on their credit cards, banks report it to credit bureaus, their credit is destroyed for several years.

COVID 19 hits the economy: big business immediately loses revenue because rather than using their profits from prior years to pay off debts and save for a rainy day, the big four airlines, for example, grew their combined liabilities to $166 billion, all while spending $39 billion on share repurchases to bid up their stock prices and enrich their executives. The government says no biggie here is a big bailout paid for by the taxpayers who are suffering financially due to this crisis. Big business asks, doesn’t it matter that we were fiscally irresponsible and didn’t maintain a low debt-to-equity ratio? Of course, not, says the government, we will always be there for you.