It's easy to stomach the idea of shutting the U.S. economy down when you're a multi-billionaire. All of the people famous enough to have op-eds published about

It's easy to stomach the idea of shutting the U.S. economy down when you're a multi-billionaire. All of the people famous enough to have op-eds published about how they would handle the situation are also rich enough where the economic impact doesn't affect them personally, other than some numbers in their portfolio. There are millions of people who just got laid off and still have rent / mortgage / car payments due and nothing but unemployment insurance if they're lucky to make ends meet for the duration of this mess. So what do you do for these people? Sending out checks for $1,200 isn't going to significantly alter the calculus here. The longer the economy stays shut down the more of a knock-on effect from halted production, interrupted supply chains, opportunity loss from unfulfilled manufacturing and shipping capacity, and ending with severe revenue loss at all levels of the economy, putting companies out of business. I've heard the straw man that "companies are just greedy and value profits over human life," but the reality is that when companies go out of business, all the people they employed for "scraps" are now unemployed and in a buyer's market for what few jobs are left. I think all of this might be esoteric here on HN where a lot of us seem to be employed in creative or tech positions that can function remotely, but these types of positions are still the exception rather than the rule in the U.S. I'm not arguing that we should reopen the economy asap, either, but it would be nice to read an op-ed from someone whose livelihood was directly impacted by the shutdown.