As the fight to provide one-time $2,000 survival checks crescendos in Washington, it can be difficult to grasp the size of the figures being thrown around. Can our country afford the proposal? Is the cost worth it?

Let’s look at the economic and social devastation unfolding throughout the country. Even before the pandemic, 40 percent of Americans were struggling to afford at least one basic necessity and a stunning 78 percent of full-time workers were living paycheck-to-paycheck according to figures from 2017. Half a million people were counted as homeless in 2018 alone.

The pandemic has made things worse: In the spring, twenty-two million jobs were lost which could take as long as four years to recover without significant relief. As of June, roughly fourteen million workers and their dependents had lost employer-based health insurance. The number of Americans impacted by food insecurity is now projected to hit fifty-four million — up from thirty-five million pre-pandemic. More than fourteen million American households are at risk of eviction and more than 336,000 Americans have died from the virus.