The S&P 500 and NASDAQ are both up year to date. The government has already taken actions, including injecting trillions of dollars into the economy, to bail out shareholders.

> Why bailout any investor? Risk is part of investment.

The damage caused by this pandemic is so rare it is less than a 1-in-100-years event (1918 pandemic killed millions, but businesses were typically shuttered only for weeks at most, not 6 months).

Certainly bailouts for natural disasters are quite common in other respects. And if the government were to seize your property via eminent domain, they owe you money. Why shouldn’t they also in justice pay out if they order your business shuttered for a half a year?

The moral hazard argument does not work in this case for a variety of reasons.