4 ms·

The economic output that we don't have right now is the "nonessential" stuff. Giving people money right now is just a loan based on the "nonessential" stuff com

The economic output that we don't have right now is the "nonessential" stuff. Giving people money right now is just a loan based on the "nonessential" stuff coming back online in the future. It makes perfect economic sense, I'm getting really upset at the idea that people dismiss this as futile or impossible. The point of giving people money is so we can preserve the means of producing both essential and nonessential things going forward. In any reasonably wealthy modern country, a small fraction of the output is used for subsistance. The idea that we can't save things scares the shit out of me because the way I interpret several historical examples of countries or societies being destroyed is not that they went unaccountably crazy or evil, but that they had superficially logical economic theories that made them destroy everything on purpose as everyone accepted there was no alternative.

dabbledash 7y ago
We have to do what we can, and dollars may help us in the short term. But “destroying everything on purpose” is exactly what I’m afraid of. Shutting down the economy for 18 months while we hope for a vaccine is not feasible, and printing money won’t make up for actual shortages.
- perl4ever 7y ago
  Nobody is or would be shutting down everything until there is a vaccine. At the current rate, everyone in the world will be infected in two months. If we succeed in slowing things down, it might peak lower but slower. But I don't see how this can last a year plus. And anyway, we aren't or wouldn't be shutting down everything, just "nonessential" things. By the way, cannabis and alcohol are "essential".
  - dabbledash 7y ago
    Well, despite a long back and forth, I’m pretty sure we agree on all the things (although I may be a little less confidant that we can turn off the “non-essentials” without damaging everything else - as long as it’s very short term we’ll deal with it.)

dabbledash 7y ago

We have to do what we can, and dollars may help us in the short term. But “destroying everything on purpose” is exactly what I’m afraid of. Shutting down the economy for 18 months while we hope for a vaccine is not feasible, and printing money won’t make up for actual shortages.

perl4ever 7y ago
Nobody is or would be shutting down everything until there is a vaccine. At the current rate, everyone in the world will be infected in two months. If we succeed in slowing things down, it might peak lower but slower. But I don't see how this can last a year plus. And anyway, we aren't or wouldn't be shutting down everything, just "nonessential" things. By the way, cannabis and alcohol are "essential".
- dabbledash 7y ago
  Well, despite a long back and forth, I’m pretty sure we agree on all the things (although I may be a little less confidant that we can turn off the “non-essentials” without damaging everything else - as long as it’s very short term we’ll deal with it.)