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> ... unprecedented government pay-outs ... The G.I. Bill after World War 2 is a precedent. Do you think CARES is larger, or smaller?

• _huayra_ 6y ago
  It's larger, but less effective. The G.I. bill gave resources to veterans to advance their lives while the 'rona-based payouts disproportionately affected the already-wealthy individuals and businesses due to the military-industrial-congressional complex. It's not so much whether it's larger or smaller, but how well it was spent. Free college and the myriad other benefits in the G.I. bill helped build the US into a superpower (well combined with other fortuitous things, like being the only major industrial power that hadn't been bombed to smithereens). The bailout of large industries that a lot of the CARES act went to were not well spent: it was cronyism to prop up underprepared corporate structures (i.e. those that have hollowed out any "emergency fund" due to it being an overhead to their bottom line) and prevent bankruptcy from enabling other folks to come in and perhaps run things better.
  • matwood 6y ago
    > prevent bankruptcy from enabling other folks to come in and perhaps run things better. Yeah, while I think the CARES act helped individuals, there's no need to try and save every business. Take restaurants for example. In good times, most restaurants fail, and new ones start. The narrative that if restaurants failed they would never come back was simply untrue.