> feel they were "COVID rich" is something I just can't wrap my head around.
I think that term ("Covid rich") isn't meant just for the checks, but for the general increase of disposable income.
If you are low income, $2-3k in checks can effectively be a pretty big windfall as people note in this thread.
If you were middle income, there was probably a bunch of discretionary spending on e.g. meals out, shows, vacations that you didn't spend compared to previous years. It's not hard to see that being an "extra" 5 figures for lots of families.
For higher incomes, people spend a lot on travel, the inability to travel for a period during Covid meant tens of thousands of dollars of available budget for other things. This is what these people used to do all their home remodeling.
On the lower end, assuming you were able to WFH the instant savings from not having to commute (gas, tolls, etc). Was a pretty big change to your budget.
Other things like childcare can be a significant expense for many families and it’s a huge change when kids were forced home and the expense was avoided. Some of these things came with reduced household incomes, layoffs, etc for other households. But if you were able keep your income and just reap the savings then you benefit. At first, before inflation kicked in, but since then if you’re income hasn’t increased ~30% or more since 2019 (very dependent on your locale) then you’ve probably been digging a hole the past ~2 years, unless you are a great with budgeting and cut back in real time as prices increased. My feeling is it’s been had to do for many people as most people don’t budget and I know for many income hasn’t grown enough to keep pace with inflation.
I’m pretty pessimistic about Covid economics/politics. My opinion is it should have triggered a global recession, likely worse than the financial crisis. There’s still a ton of inflation that needs to flush through the financial system. While we talked about flattening the curve of the virus, we really just flattened the curve of the economic fallout of such a large event. I think a period of austerity is likely going to be required. Rates and prices have a lot of people locked in their houses or out of home ownership, average vehicle age is at a record high, people are dining out less, even cutting back on their beloved Starbucks, etc so I think the signs of this are ramping up. I’m not quite sure how it plays out, especially with the US political leadership changes coming up; but I feel like the majority of Americans (at least) have some financial strains coming their way, likely uncomfortable changes will need to be made and will feel like a type of austerity to us.
I think that term ("Covid rich") isn't meant just for the checks, but for the general increase of disposable income.
If you are low income, $2-3k in checks can effectively be a pretty big windfall as people note in this thread.
If you were middle income, there was probably a bunch of discretionary spending on e.g. meals out, shows, vacations that you didn't spend compared to previous years. It's not hard to see that being an "extra" 5 figures for lots of families.