Is putting off loan and rent payments something feasible? Besides food, that's what we're all working for anyway. I'd sleep better knowing my house and car note could be extended without penalty.
This is one of the things that really bother me. Look at that line! The virus could be being passed to those people while they are waiting. It is incredibly contagious. The unemployment agencies should insist that all applications be done online, and if that isn't an option (although it would be if every household were guaranteed at least basic internet service, which should have been done long ago), then do it by phone. NOT by standing in line waiting for a ****ing interview! Both dangerous and brutally stupid by the government entity involved, wherever it is.
This is all I’ve been thinking about. Do I pay rent and truck payment like business as usual and then everything goes to **** next month and I have a thousand dollar check that covers about 1/5 of the monthly expenses?
I don't get how they could suspend rent/mortgage payments. Mortgage sure, they could just back the banks, but rent seems like that would just sink a lot of people who pay rent to small companies, private individuals, etc.
Even if the interest was tacked on at the end, I'd sleep better at night. The banks still get their interest. But if all commerce stops while society is doing their part by staying home, banking can self quarantine too. To me, that's an easy call.
Here's something ridiculous. Reinstate the estate tax. Make it punitive above a threshold. Like 90% over 10mm. Allow for person to person inter vivos gifts up to that amount for people over 60. Basically make the Koch's and the Buffets start circulating billions. Quickly.
It is arrant stupidity to try to implement an economic stimulus when the underlying public health problem persists. You have a lower chance of success than someone trying to measure rainfall with a colander. All efforts should be on having the painful stage over with as quickly as possible by increasing heath care capacity and (controlled) infecting as many as possible of the less at risk people as early possible. The longer the labor force (many which are not at risk) remains inactive, the worse the economic fallout will be. When economic activity resumes, then you can look at a stimulus to kickstart the economy.
A stipend earmarked specifically for rent and food? I dunno. That's why we have the geniuses in DC. What they do now will define them in history.
I think you are underestimating the type of permanent damage that can be done by doing no stimulus. A lot of the lost jobs won't be there.
Getting people money now to spend then is probably fine. Also, if we need it again, do it again We need to be creative. The rules are changing. Life is changing. Embrace it (from 6 feet away)
I am not against a stimulus and have only said its premature and likely a waste of money and time at this point
To spend on what - tissue and hand sanitizer? What is the primary objective (beyond a 'feel good reason'), and, how do even determine who and how much to give? Short term loans can be made available to help companies with liquidity but giving money to people now will not alleviate much if anything at all. Current focus should be on the real problem - the pandemic.
To spend on rent and food for the millions of people that are suddenly unemployed overnight because the businesses they worked at got shut down by decree, with employees having no time to plan or prepare. So people don't suddenly become homeless or starve.
Rent, food etc. Most people are a lot lower on the Maslovian hierarchy of needs than we'd expect inthe self proclaimed greatest richest country on earth
Not everyone is as well off as some of us might be. That's a pretty narrow view, one that is wrong, in my opinion. People need to pay for food now, pay rent now, make a mortgage payment now, pay for medications now, take care of their kids, if they have them, which is definitely an expense. This isn't some nebulous, esoteric exercise. This is an immediate catastrophe for a lot of people. For many, it'll be like the drip drip of Chinese water torture. A slow slide into insolvency, but for others, we're talking about next week, or next month. Think about it.
If you can suspend mortgage payments and property taxes, there's no reason to charge full rent. You could reduce it to maintenance
You address that with short term credit facilities, else how much are you going to give, to who and for how long? We have this problem cos the majority has to stay home to protect the minority as the heath care system is unprepared to handle the consequence of the pandemic.
So you extend credit facilities to those people and companies to tide them over. Everyone can decide how much they need to borrow, as opposed to the futile exercise of government trying to decide who needs how much and for how long. First priority should getting people back to work as soon as possible, as opposed to waiting for it to slowly blow over. The latter is just a slow painful death that would likely leave the country in serious debt.
