The Non-Linearity of Need, Pt. 2
March 19, 2020·14 comments·Politics
Government relief arrives in the same amounts for everyone. But need doesn't arrive evenly. Some communities will fall through gaps that no policy mechanism was designed to address. The question isn't whether help will be needed—it's whether the people closest to those gaps will wait for institutions to notice or step in themselves.
• Cascading crises create cascading needs that don't fit policy categories. A school closure means lost meals for kids who depend on them. Unemployment means missed rent. Supply chain disruptions mean empty shelves. Each shock ripples into the next, and no single relief program catches everyone.
• The gap between what's needed and what policy provides isn't a failure of generosity—it's structural. Systems designed for normal times assume needs arrive in predictable patterns. Crisis doesn't work that way. The people who know this best are the ones already working in vulnerable communities.
• Stories of who's actually helping reveal something policy discussions miss. A restaurant owner matching the cost of prime ribs so a community organization can feed kids. A young worker donating their first salary. Small business owners keeping people employed even when their doors are closed. These aren't isolated acts—they're proof of something larger.
• The mechanism for scaled action already exists, but it requires a choice. Government stimulus checks are arriving. The question isn't what they're for—it's whether the people receiving them will treat them as personal gain or as capital for community repair. One choice scales immediate impact. The other doesn't.
• What happens if enough people decide that keeping their community intact matters more than keeping the money? That's not sentimentality. That's the difference between which neighborhoods survive this intact and which ones don't.
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Comments
Ben/Rusty - First, thank you for your generosity and that of the other partners at Second Foundation. We and several other donors each donated $1,000 last week. The funds were used to help with delivering meals to kids and their families as SOC shut down due to the virus. The meals the kids receive at SOC is often their only real meal for the day. Again, thank you for the donation! #OurFinestHour
BTW that is me in the green polo serving up Christmas dinner. I cooked 12 Prime Ribs to serve to the kids and their families! it was a huge success.
Thank YOU for what you are doing! 12 prime ribs! Next pack gathering in your neck of the woods once we’re through all this!
Sounds good. Souls vide and then season and used a torch to sear. My neighbor helped with the cooking and Fligner’s Meats in Lorain priced the meat at his cost and then only charged me 50% of that! Not to mention a lot of helpers.
Just heard from a full-hearted Pack member that he’s in for $1,000 to the runner-up in this poll! #OurFinestHour
I’m 23 and graduated this past December. I was lucky enough to find a job in an industry that I loved and where remote work was already part of the culture. I’m therefore in a position to donate 200 CAD to a local food bank (Moisson Montreal). Thank you Ben and Rusty for everything that you do.
Do you check the info@epsilontheory.com email address? I have sent two emails there over the past two weeks and have not seen a confirmation email. No need for recognition, just want to make sure the information is getting to the right place.
We are blessed , of course any money we receive from govt we will give to others. We have been tipping 50% on all our take-out orders and have continued to pay some local business as usual even though we are not using their services presently…I don’t know if that really counts though.
On another note I was supposed to get married tonight. ??♂️.
Rusty and Ben, this post brought tears to my eyes, thank you and Epsilon Theory SO MUCH for your generosity. So far I haven’t done anything physically (my partner is 71 so he’s in the high-risk category, so I’ve been trying to limit my exposure so I don’t get the virus and transmit it to him).
But I gave to the two organizations I mentioned – Food Bank of NYC and West Side Campaign Against Hunger, gave to the employee fund for Marc Forgione’s eponymous restaurant (which is my favorite restaurant in the world) and his reastaurant Peasant, bought gift certificates from Reverence (a completely different and stunning dining experience by Chef Russell Jackson) and Fieldtrip by chef JJ Johnson, both in Harlem, and made a direct donation to Rick Younger who plays Mr. Duvall in the musical “Mean Girls” on Broadway. If anyone needs a mood pick-up, follow him on Facebook and see his “Low Budget Morning Breffus Show” where he cooks breakfast and sings, it’s a total riot especially since his daughter LoLo has been making guest appearances. And he takes requests! Appreciating joy where you can find it is so important.
I am just so worried about the small businesses in New York City, really everywhere, but here they are what gives this city its character. These are not faceless nameless corporations, they are actual people, friends and acquaintances that have finally succeeded in achieving their dreams, only to have it greatly threatened. It was already a problem to be honest, there were no longer any Irish pubs in my my neighborhood as of about two years ago. Also the airline industry, I’ve become quite an avgeek – Ben you are spot on imo regarding the corporate entities, but the people whose dream it was to become an airline pilot or a flight attendant who are now being affected by this is brutal.
On a more positive note, I absolutely love the “pay it forward if you can” concept with the stimulus check, which if I’m not laid off by the time I get it (I don’t expect to be, but everything now is unexpected, ok, not death and taxes, but…) I commit to doing that. I just feel whatever I do, it’s not going to be enough.
But I am thankful for my partner, for friends and family and social connections, for great food and drink, for comedy, for music, and for being a member of this pack. I do still believe somehow, we will get through this.
Ben/Rusty, thank you for all you guys are doing! Joining the pledge to donate my helicopter money. My parents and I just donated an advance on it to Three Square helping feed those in need in Las Vegas. https://www.threesquare.org/a-letter-from-our-president-ceo-brian-burton #OurFinestHour
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