- President Joe Biden signed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan on March 11.
- The plan included $1400
stimulus checks for some Americans, which started going out on March 12. - People online are making
memes about using the checks for expensive purchases, parodying extreme wealth.
On March 11, President Joe Biden signed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, and $1400 stimulus checks were on their way to some Americans the next day. The highly-anticipated payments, which follow previous stimulus checks under the Trump Administration, have long been the source of social media fixation.
As the checks finally began to roll out, so did the inevitable memes.
Jokes about the purchases people aspire to make with their $1400 checks have been going viral, referencing outlandish "purchases" that would in some cases be impossible to buy - like freeing the animals at SeaWorld (which has faced allegations of animal cruelty in the past) and parodying major investment in the banking firm Goldman Sachs. These purchases are things that normally would not be attainable with just over $1,000.
-KIARRA (@KIARRAVLSQZ) March 14, 2021
-Ant (@YoungStunnaLife) March 13, 2021
-Ryan Ken (@Ryan_Ken_Acts) March 15, 2021
-nova✖️♡ (@KAINENATlON) March 14, 2021
-Gators Daily (@GatorsDaily) March 14, 2021
The memes themselves riff on entitlement and wealth with the tongue-in-cheek context of the $1400 stimulus payments.
Part of that sardonic tone is likely due to the fact that President Biden and other Democrats had spoken explicitly of $2000 stimulus checks in the past, with the hypothetical $2000 payments becoming a cornerstone of the Georgia US Senate runoff race that resulted in Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff winning the senate race.
But in January, President Biden unveiled his COVID-19 relief package, which included $1,400 stimulus checks to add to the $600 doled out to Americans via the previous relief package under the Trump Administration, Insider's John Haltiwanger reported. That brought the total of the two checks to $2000, drawing criticism that Democrats had backtracked from a pledge of $2000 checks.
Some lawmakers have argued that the three stimulus payments thus far over the course of the pandemic were not sufficient, with some progressive Democrats, led by Rep. Ilhan Omar, pushing for recurring stimulus checks in Biden's relief package in January.
Through extreme parody, affecting an attitude of entitled wealth by demanding exorbitant goods or other items that are beyond reckoning, the memes reflect the sentiment that $1400 isn't enough.
-b بسمة (@bbreezybeasy) March 14, 2021
Americans have previously memed their way through stimulus check rollouts, making jokes about how the money isn't enough to help Americans get by. By December 2020, people were comparing the $600 stimulus check to thin slivers of pizza or saying that the following stimulus check would come in the form of coupons or $20 gift cards.
This wave of memes, focusing on completely unattainable purchases, is just the latest addition to the cycle.