Orpheus wrote:I think its a little cruel to phrase it as "asking for handouts" when entire industries were wiped out overnight. People want to survive, yeah. The fact that the GOP playbook has stayed the same when many people's choice is basically work and risk spreading disease or get thrown out on the street is absolutely absurd.
Okay, I agree with both of you here. Even if no bailout is ideal in normal circumstances, this is the emergency button when a bailout is needed. I agree. Got it. No argument here.Mickey wrote:In other words, a response to a pandemic that doesn't involve shutdown orders (which would require significantly greater displays of personal responsibility on the part of the American populace) would still have to grapple with the fact that the kind of limited in-person interaction necessary to slow the spread will induce a reduction of job growth in the service industries, and a number of other sectors as well. Calling for greater direct payments in this context isn't evidence of a philosophical belief in government assistance INSTEAD of employment overall.
Now imagine the $600 (or even $2000) sum that's going to individuals currently unemployed for reasons beyond their control going to beefier payroll protection programs instead. Programs that would enable these individuals to social distance, reduce hours, or stay at home without losing their jobs. It may sound a bit like six in one hand, half a dozen in the other, except that when we all come out on the other side of this thing, people still have their jobs.
The service industry, in particular, would benefit from this. Imagine a bar, totally shuttered due to the pandemic, with employees not furloughed. These employees could work in shifts at the bar weekly, keeping it clean, tending to all the little things that fall through the cracks during a busy business week, brainstorming marketing ideas for when things reopen, growing as a staff by keeping the thing going. Imagine how much of a leg up that business would have upon reopening and herd immunity or whatever may come. All while their employees kept food on their own table because they earned money.
Something along these lines would be a true conservative stimulus response I would think.
