$2k/month for those laid off

Well done to the gov't. And while it isn't enough for a family to normally live on if they can defer their payments till they get back to work and solvent it might just be enough.

Now the only issue is how to get that money to the people.

More free shit for everyone !!

Expect more helicopter drops to come. The problem is it's hard to restart and economy on lockdown.

That's where the idea of a 'Debt Jubilee' comes in. Erase everyone's debt, and all of a sudden people can survive easier, and when the crisis is over, there is a lot of extra spending cash around to jumpstart the economy.

Unfair for those of us who don't have any debts.

Perhaps. Then again, living life debt free has it's own rewards.

Outside of the car I have approximately 3k in debt. When ever I get the check I'll be 2k in debt and not in a financial problem.

Dang lockdown killed the Uber driving for me. $300-$500 a month loss of income didn't kill me but it put a hurt in my financial plans. Pulling $500 from the trip savings to get by till the check comes. IF we get a second check I'm real good and might look to sending some of it to family if they are in need.

That's where the idea of a 'Debt Jubilee' comes in. Erase everyone's debt, and all of a sudden people can survive easier, and when the crisis is over, there is a lot of extra spending cash around to jumpstart the economy.

I was having one of my manic moments yesterday. Dreamed that despite the upcoming horror of the final death total this period of time is the perfect opportunity for the world to re-invent not just the economy, but the entire idea of what an economy is and what it's supposed to be. Start with the total write-down of all debt everywhere and proceed from there. And strike while the iron is hot, as the other Western countries could lead this while the US spirals down into Trump-led irrelevancy.

They I realized the monsters in charge with their trillions in their offshore accounts would never let it happen, that they'd probably have the United States go to actual war against any others who tried such a thing. And then the moment was gone, but it was a happy one while it lasted. To quote Sammy Hagar, that's what dreams are made of...

I'm sure a debt jubilee would never come to pass in the US, because those politicians are bought and paid for. But in most other G7 countries, there are limits on how much corporations can give politicians, so there is at least a glimmer of hope.

Otherwise, the long crawl out of recession will be far, far harder than the one 100 years ago.

I think that it wouldn't even be what the communists want, a centrally-planned and dictated economy where some faceless apparatchiks somewhere in a dingy room decide who gets what and grudges get anonymously settled against those who might have "too much". What it could be, and should be, is the actual and genuine DEMOCRATIZATION of the entire world economic and financial structure - in other words, it's not democratic socialism but instead actual real economic democracy. Start with the first principle, the first right, being that no one anywhere will be left without the core basics of shelter, safety, nutrition, health care, and education. And the most important second one, is that the billionaire and multi-millionaire classes are forever abolished, and that those who live in the greatest of luxury will never again be allowed to dictate who can have what or how much the "lesser and inferior" can have in violation of the first principle already mentioned.

Then work from there, just to see what happens. It would be the greatest challenge ever but it could also lead to the dawning of the first golden age for all of humanity, not just for the born-fortunate.

Wouldn't a debt jubilee cause many companies to go broke and close? This would make a lot of people unemployed? Putting them out of the economic recovery that would supposedly take place.

Not against it but trying to figure out how it would actually work.

There would be the potential that for whatever parts of the current financial sector collapsed would be replaced by a new system of management and administration, and that's where the bulk of the bank and brokerage employees would find new employment. All that would be missing is the worst aspect of the contemporary structure, in that how today the entire purpose and principle of a bank's existence is to vacuum every dollar possible into the hands of the upper executives. That absolutely has to come to an end, because a true economic democracy could not abide the existence of a layer of devious and rapacious nobility at the top robbing everyone else blind. That locust-grade of destructive theft has been in full effect since Reagan/Thatcher and it is by far the primary motivator of the street-level fury from those who have been bled dry and tossed away like they were no more than garbage.

There is no right to make profit, and how many banks and credit card companies have huge cash reserves from all that interest they charge? Answer: All of them.

There would be financial hits, but how much of a hit has already happened with trillions in value being lost on the stock market?

A major portion of any economic democracy should be the nationalization of all housing and insurance. Mortgages and rents would no longer be held by private profit-drive institutions and would be paid to the government via taxes. Ditto insurance.

As for the grousing of the financial sector? Well, as Dice Clay once said, step out of the way or get stepped over. The choice is yours but the plan will proceed as directed with or without your consent or participation.