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From a government/economy perspective, office workers do contribute a lot to local businesses when they pop out for lunch, coffee, etc. While furlough schemes a
by BillinghamJ 6y ago
From a government/economy perspective, office workers do contribute a lot to local businesses when they pop out for lunch, coffee, etc. While furlough schemes are gradually wrapping up (eg in the UK), reducing redundancies does depend on some level of normalcy in people's day to day spending.
- Nursie 6y agoBut why try to support that, instead of allow the economy to adapt? I spent £180 per week on transport before this, and another £50+ on coffee and meals. At the end of the year I will have saved enough to get my bathroom refitted, benefitting local tradespeople. I also go out and buy coffee and food locally more often. The spending won't be lost, it'll change. And if we're lucky it'll change in a way that spreads the money out beyond London. The real sector that's f*cked is commercial property.
- BillinghamJ 6y agoI think that viewpoint definitely does have some validity, but in this case I think rests quite heavily on the idea that post-covid will closely resemble the current way people do things. Clearly there will be some significant change, but I'm sure it will be a balance between what we had and how things are now. Once that happens, we don't really want to have lots of businesses to have gone bankrupt. At least not the ones we will still want when things have reached that balance.
- Freak_NL 6y agoEncouraging people to commute just so the coffee joint near the office can survive is economically and ethically disproportional. Commuting is, for most people and at least for a large part of the commute, a waste of time.