Nevada did just that. And bc they just shut down or a month, there's going to be a ton of people using that online service.
People who live paycheck to paycheck don't need credit facilities - they'll never be able to pay that back. There is precedent here of the government just flat out mailing checks to people. I believe it happened after 9/11 when everyone just got $600.
First, 9/11 was a totally different circumstance. Secondly, living paycheck paycheck is a function of running expenses vs income and has no simple identifying marker e.g. a low income earner getting free housing and food can be better off than someone with a higher income that pays his own bills or even higher income guy with higher mortgage payment who has lost all his investment in the market crash Most importantly, there is no equitable nor sustainable way of doing this i.e. how much, to who and for how long. Should someone in NY city get paid same as amount as someone in rural Wyoming? Even if you want to give free money, that should be done after the public health problem has been resolved.
People have to get their head around how systemically bizarre all this stuff is now. Maybe. That was an unfathomable answer a week ago.
Both 1 & 2. A horrible possibility is neither 1 nor 2 (no immunity). Either way, said any of them take 6m-1Yr. How can the gov sustain payment to people and/or busn for that long (i'm asking an honest question where I'm curious if the gov as-is can or if there is some new system that could)? We might have to end up living a new norm for a period of time... but do whatever we can to live in that world... At current, you flatten the curve to reduce the fatality rate and buy you time. A collapsed health system would be a nightmare. That nightmare would lead to more fear leading to more closure and that would then lead to more business collapsing and more unemployment and death. Looking outward, you must develop rapid and massive testing capability and near live time monitoring of everyone. After that, start lifting slowing and monitor closely. There will be surge again, but now you can respond much faster. You can be surgical on what to close down for 2 weeks at a time. Throw a few small Billions at that now to put that infrastructure in place. You also need to drastically increase your health care capability to treat and to prevent spreading of COVID19 within those facility. All of this investment might be an overkill if either 1 or 2 happen faster, but it's an investment for the next big one that will come again.
If that's the case, they'll have to raise taxes substantially when this is all over in order to cover the massive budget shortfalls. Of course, it isn't like we don't have a huge Trillon dollar budget deficit as it is...what's a few more trillion dollars on top of it (The thinking of current Republicans and Trump as based on the last few years)
Our whole economic system is ripe to be entirely upended and replaced with something new. Too late for Bernie but . . .if this is as bad as the worst case scenarios, revolutionary change may be more possilbe than I thought a week ago.
And that is the fundamental problem here. If you don't, you'll kill people with homelessness and starvation. But is it even possible to do?
It's possible to do it, but you have to have people more or less willing to rethink the entire economic system. Which sounds ridiculous, I admit, but our alternatives are really dire. LIke if we are staring at millions dead in a few months, which is a distinct possibility, things are gonna get weird.
Its possible to stand in front of an oncoming high speed train - that something is possible doesnt mean you should do it. Amassing federal debt beyond reason (which is what would happen in this case of giving out cash as currently prescribed) would essentially collapse the system as the ability to repay said debt will be practically non-existent. Thus what you tried to prevent for a few months will become reality for a few years, with high inflation and unemployment being the least problems. The more realistic approach imo, is to provide 0% or very low interest rate loans to individuals and biz in the short term, focus on solving the health problem ASAP, move to kick starting the economy and then see how best to compensate those with unfair losses. Handouts and trickle down economics have never served any sustainable purpose beyond helping politicians to garner votes from the less informed.
This guy https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.courier-journal.com/amp/5057191002 A side effect is that whole movements are now irrelevant. Rand Paul, libertarianism, small government - that stuff is OVER. Letting the "free" market solve certain problems - nope. We're going back to New Deal/WW2 era of government intervention. I know they'll say "nah it's just the flu" but COVID19 is honey badger, it;s going to create problems that are going to lay the systemic flaws bare...like it already has in the Potemkin white house...possibly with a pile of millions of corpses (or the whole country going under house arrest for 18 months, which seems too hard to do, but will require massive redistribution to pull off)
Are you saying that the debt we currently have is within reason? Reason was abandoned long ago. It was pushed even further aside when Trump was elected and started cutting taxes, paying out money to big corporations and corporate farmers and ranchers to tip the economic scales. He has also started buying bonds with government money. He has already pulled all of the levers that people would normally pull during a crisis situation. Reason has long since been abandoned.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, WHOA!!! Are you telling me the only thing gonna save us now is teh SOCIALIZMS?!?!?!
Mark Cuban: Bailed out companies shouldn’t be allowed to buy back stock He also prefers small biz keeping their employees over government sending checks to people directly
It’s been eye opening. Apparently our economy can’t handle a week or two of schools and restaurants being closed before the layoff surge is expected to overtake the Great Recession. Less than a month ago it was this is the best bigly economy ever and now it’s looking like 1929. We are witnessing first hand why we need UBI. The great amazing economy is far too fragile.
