During the pandemic, we all struggled. Businesses were forced to close. Many were left unemployed. And families struggled to make ends meet. 

Over the course of a year, the U.S. government gave citizens three stimulus checks that totaled $3,200. 

While we were struggling to make ends meet, billionaires in America were getting richer by the day. 

According to Business Insider, billionaires made a combined total of $1.3 trillion during the pandemic. That’s far too much. 

To put this into perspective, $1.3 trillion could have paid for stimulus checks upwards of $3,900 for each person in the U.S., according to Inequality. 

Some congressional Republicans dubbed the stimulus checks we received as “too costly.” I would argue that nearly 100,000 permanently closed businesses, 18 million collecting unemployment and 12 million losing employer-sponsored health insurance is far more costly for the country.

Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos made $75 billion alone in 2020, according to Business Insider. Bezos, who began 2020 as the richest man in the world, is now hoarding 2.7 million times the U.S. median household income.

That’s a lot of money considering how much many Americans were suffering—especially college students. 

Many college students did not receive stimulus checks. They were just left to struggle with debt, rent, food and other bills. 

ULM signed with the U.S. Department of Education to provide COVID-19 Emergency Relief funds to eligible students. According to ULM CARES Act Reports, it included four phases of COVID-19 relief. 

The most recent phase, phase four, occurred this month. This phase included aid for 553 of their 8,000+ undergraduate and graduate students and totaled $69,932. 

That means each of the 553 students got around $131 each. That is barely enough for two weeks’ worth of groceries, much less rent and other expenses. 

America failed its next generation of workers. It forced them to struggle while billionaires doubled their worth. 

To help the working class through the panemic, we must tax the rich. 

Taxing the rich will allow more funding to go to Americans during hard times like the pandemic. 

It will also prevent billionaires from doubling their wealth while everyone else struggles. 

We all struggled through the pandemic. COVID-19 was hard for everyone—except for billionaires. 

But wealth shouldn’t be the factor that made COVID-19 easier.