Coronavirus, Covid 19 Discussion and How It Has Affected Your Daily Life Chat Thread

[MarkJr]

Tread lightly. Official story only is allowed.

But.... experts saying something that isn't as strict as expected..... question away. Lol!

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Maybe they are. However, they can't afford to give every small business the thousands of dollars required to stay afloat for long periods of time. These restrictions have been going on for months.
The larger businesses get enough income regularly because they have customers constantly.
Small businesses usually do not.
The government can't keep everyone afloat without bringing the rest of the country even farther down into debt and making everyone poor. Giving one thousand dollars to every person as a stimulus check alone would cost them three hundred billion dollars.

Ehhhhhh, it's way more complicated than "we can't pay for that" though.

For example, the government passed a loans program. But they gave 350 billion in loans to "small businesses" (defined as having like 500 employees) and then an additional 500 billion in loans to very large industry companies (up to 10,000 employees). Those loans could have been appropriated differently. These large 10K employee companies rake in millions of dollars each year and pay their CEOs exorbitant sums. There's no reason at all why many of these already successful businesses couldn't budget for emergencies except for greed.

Like I said, none of the small businesses I know qualify for financial assistance because they all run on a couple dozen people or less. I don't think a successful business with 10,000 employees should need our tax dollars. That money could have gone to smaller business loans to keep them afloat or freelance workers whose incomes had markedly decreased. We clearly had the loan money available and didn't send it to actually small small-businesses, instead spending it on larger companies.

The ability to budget and respond to crises shouldn't only fall on poor people. Businesses have a stake in our nations budget too and should have money for a rainy day.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CARES_Act#Relief_to_businesses_and_organizations

 

[MarkJr]

Ehhhhhh, it's way more complicated than "we can't pay for that" though.

For example, the government passed a loans program. But they gave 350 billion in loans to "small businesses" (defined as having like 500 employees) and then an additional 500 billion in loans to very large industry companies (up to 10,000 employees). Those loans could have been appropriated differently. These large 10K employee companies rake in millions of dollars each year and pay their CEOs exorbitant sums. There's no reason at all why many of these already successful businesses couldn't budget for emergencies except for greed.

Like I said, none of the small businesses I know qualify for financial assistance because they all run on a couple dozen people or less. I don't think a successful business with 10,000 employees should need our tax dollars. That money could have gone to smaller business loans to keep them afloat or freelance workers whose incomes had markedly decreased. We clearly had the loan money available and didn't send it to actually small small-businesses, instead spending it on larger companies.

The ability to budget and respond to crises shouldn't only fall on poor people. Businesses have a stake in our nations budget too and should have money for a rainy day.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CARES_Act#Relief_to_businesses_and_organizations

When a business is forced to close. It is no longer their fault.

Pay them to stay closed, or allow them to make profits.

It's black and white.

 

[Winter Creek Coop]

My aunt and uncle got their vaccine. They both feel pretty rough with flu like symptoms, but otherwise ok. They were on ivermectin, zinc, c&d. My aunt lost two family members and so she decided to get the vaccine in addition to the ivermectin entourage. I don’t know why more people waiting on the vax aren’t also on one of the safe and proven prophylactics.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

But also I personally I think we should pay businesses to stay closed or reduce capacity for better social distancing.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

I don’t know why more people waiting on the vax aren’t also on one of the safe and proven prophylactics.

I mean, I think you know exactly why not. They're not fully approved for use yet and the approval process is strict for a reason. If doctors prescribe it willy nilly they could be liable. But good on your aunt. I'm sure she'll be better in a day or two, most people are.

 

[MarkJr]

View attachment 2508196

But also I personally I think we should pay businesses to stay closed or reduce capacity for better social distancing.

Compensation for reduced business? Sure.

One thing....... how is this getting paid for? We've already printed/devalued our currency greatly. How far do you go before hyperinflation?

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Compensation for reduced business? Sure.

One thing....... how is this getting paid for? We've already printed/devalued our currency greatly. How far do you go before hyperinflation?

Not really on topic, but we have a lot of undertaxed people and businesses in the US paying poverty wages and taking in government subsidies. We've had marginal tax rates as high as 92% in the US history and the country did not fall apart, including during other pandemics. There was a 50 year period up until the 80's were the marginal tax rate was over 60%. Right now we have a marginal tax rate around 37%. Higher tax rates also often coincide with higher per capita GDP, benefitting the economy as a whole. There's a balance to be struck here and during a national emergency I don't see why we couldn't close tax loopholes and raise the marginal rate to what it used to be when my parents were my age or what it was during our last national pandemic.

https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/statistics/historical-highest-marginal-income-tax-rates
https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/gdp-per-capita
https://www.epi.org/publication/ib364-corporate-tax-rates-and-economic-growth/

 

[Beer can]

Compensation for reduced business? Sure.

One thing....... how is this getting paid for? We've already printed/devalued our currency greatly. How far do you go before hyperinflation?

2001 USA debt was 3 trillion, 6 trillion 2008, was thought to be horrible bad.
It's pretty close to 28 trillion now, and they want to print some more.

 

[Sapphire Sebright]

Amen, Mark.