I hear lots of people complaining about the stimulus checks they are getting. This is how they are supposed to work:

We seniors each just got $250 along with our Social Security checks. With this money, I bought materials for my small-business jewelry making, from one source locally, two on the Internet, all small businesses themselves. From my primary source, the one-time windfall allowed me to order in higher quantities, thus cutting my costs by half. This allows me to sell what I make at ridiculously low prices, making them affordable for almost everybody, while my meager Social Security income gets a modest boost.

I sell the jewelry I create at the farmers market this spring and summer, and probably at the holiday market in Greenbank at the end of the year. Those respective markets get payments for my spaces. And just last Saturday, one woman bought $65 of my jewelry from her own stimulus check.

Doesn’t that make a nice little circle of benefit, buying and selling from each other, stimulating the marketplace? Perhaps if people ratchet down their own needs and value scales, they too can profit from this generous approach to our economic survival.

Patricia Brooks

Coupeville