Let's just imagine that you are a water supply company for a medium sized city with $1,000,000/month in revenue. Let's further imagine that all of your "busines

Let's just imagine that you are a water supply company for a medium sized city with $1,000,000/month in revenue. Let's further imagine that all of your "business demand", which is normally 50% of your business, has dried up while you residential demand has gone up 50%, so you are running at 75%. And let's pretend that you have fixed costs and previously had a 10% profit margin. Whereas before you were making $100,000/month profit, now you are losing $150,000/month. Now, let's say you run out of money to pay your employees and can't raise more. If you shut down, the city can't have water. If you stay open, your costs and employees can't get paid. If you close down and your creditors take over you, they'll have the same issue. So what do you do? I'd argue a government bailout in this case is necessary. There's a whole other question of how punitive the bailout should be. Does the government lend you money, take partial ownership or take full ownership outright? But I think most people agree that something needs to get done.