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You can, albeit 70%+ retail businesses no longer exist and their former employees don't have jobs.

azernik 7y ago
Freeze mortgage payments/interest, waive rent - there are lots of ways of dealing with this, and most are all about removing any financial return on capital for the duration.
- bequanna 7y ago
  This is the (horrible) idea that just won’t die. What do you propose that the parties who are due rent/mortgage payments do? Those payments aren’t simply ‘return on capital’ they pay taxes, utilities, insurance, employees.
  - aaronblohowiak 7y ago
    A lot of people don’t realize that one person’s debt is another person’s income.
  - azernik 7y ago
    You cut down as much of those as possible (e.g. not making people pay utilities, as many countries/localities have done), treating nonessential employees as laid-off and needing government aid like anyone else, adding tax and insurance-premium holidays. Lots of places have approached this model very closely; there is almost always some little bit that falls through the cracks, but it's doable.
    - bequanna 7y ago
      ”Insurance-premium holidays“. You’ve got to be kidding, right? Shortly after that you can expect the insurance companies to institute a “claim paying holiday”. The payment holiday concept is such a poor solution and mainly seems be proposed by people aiming to ‘punish’ those that they perceive as having more than themselves (landlords, banks, etc.) or by ultra liberal governments trying to appease their constituents. I don’t think you really fathom how much damage this would cause in practice. Our whole economy only works if people/companies meet their obligations. The much, much simpler solution is bottom-up vs some never ending crazy patchwork of bailouts and payment forgiveness. Give the people money via direct payments and generous unemployment so they can meet their obligations.
- conanbatt 7y ago
  Sure, but its not free. In the best of cases that means that everyone elses capital/income is diminished in this grand-national subsidy from A to B. If you give income to a coffee shop that sells no coffee anymore you are spending your coffee money without getting coffee.
- mrfusion 7y ago
  What about landlords living off the rent money? Until now it was a nice way to earn a return.

Freeze mortgage payments/interest, waive rent - there are lots of ways of dealing with this, and most are all about removing any financial return on capital for the duration.

bequanna 7y ago
This is the (horrible) idea that just won’t die. What do you propose that the parties who are due rent/mortgage payments do? Those payments aren’t simply ‘return on capital’ they pay taxes, utilities, insurance, employees.
- aaronblohowiak 7y ago
  A lot of people don’t realize that one person’s debt is another person’s income.
- azernik 7y ago
  You cut down as much of those as possible (e.g. not making people pay utilities, as many countries/localities have done), treating nonessential employees as laid-off and needing government aid like anyone else, adding tax and insurance-premium holidays. Lots of places have approached this model very closely; there is almost always some little bit that falls through the cracks, but it's doable.
  - bequanna 7y ago
    ”Insurance-premium holidays“. You’ve got to be kidding, right? Shortly after that you can expect the insurance companies to institute a “claim paying holiday”. The payment holiday concept is such a poor solution and mainly seems be proposed by people aiming to ‘punish’ those that they perceive as having more than themselves (landlords, banks, etc.) or by ultra liberal governments trying to appease their constituents. I don’t think you really fathom how much damage this would cause in practice. Our whole economy only works if people/companies meet their obligations. The much, much simpler solution is bottom-up vs some never ending crazy patchwork of bailouts and payment forgiveness. Give the people money via direct payments and generous unemployment so they can meet their obligations.
conanbatt 7y ago
Sure, but its not free. In the best of cases that means that everyone elses capital/income is diminished in this grand-national subsidy from A to B. If you give income to a coffee shop that sells no coffee anymore you are spending your coffee money without getting coffee.
mrfusion 7y ago
What about landlords living off the rent money? Until now it was a nice way to earn a return.