>It might lower payment rate (if an eviction isn't coming those folks may put their money toward more immediate issues like healthcare/food).

It is tough to feel bad that landlords might have to temporarily sacrifice their profitability so their tenants don't literally starve to death. Comments like this are just telling on themselves that they care more about the financial health of the home owner class than the literal health of the renter class. Once again, this doesn't change how much a tenant owes. It just removes the ability to kick a tenant out. Courts will work to resolve these financial disputes once we are over the pandemic.

You are incorrect - I care deeply about the well being of those renters and I don't give a hoot about the large rental managers - those corporations can absorb the temporary slow down in revenue. I care about those tighter margin managers of property that will be out of an income if renters can't continue to pay rent.

The economy is like a big giant circle of life, some parts are terrible, some parts can withstand a lot of business, but if momentum starts to die then we're all in trouble. I'm also not advocating for a full re-open I think that's more damaging in the long run, I'd support diverting money from some of the big government sinks (i.e. defense spending) to help social issues in the short term, Boeing and folks have enough of a war chest to withstand some short term losses.

You certainly aren't showing compassion to renters when your first response is to criticize a move that you admit allows people to prioritize buying food and healthcare over rent. Where are in the middle of an emergency. When in an emergency you respond with triage. The first step is to identify the most urgent and time sensitive issues and address them before moving on. Stopping evictions is the first step. We shouldn't make perfect the enemy of the good.

Honestly - the fact that people in America are commonly forced to choose between rent and food is the problem. You folks need to fix that first.

I think the moratorium is a good idea but I think a better idea is subsidizing rent needs with continued stimulus checks.

We are in agreement with the only slight quibble of "fix that first". Using that triage example again, we need to get the patient's heart beating again before we worry about changing the patients diet to address their heart disease. And sometimes a defibrillator is the "better idea" but you don't always have one available and CPR is better than nothing.

I disagree - I think the US has plenty available to subsidize the economy - rather than having mortgage payments be frozen why don't you just freeze the DoD budget and redirect that money toward economic subsidies - a hundredth of what the DoD eats in a year would float all the social services for like a decade.

Hiding behind the DoD being "politically untouchable" is cowardice when 200k folks are dead.

There are two different components to that. Would it be politically possible? And would it be effective ?

The answer to the political feasibility question is a straight no. There is not going to be political support to redirect DoD funds to direct stimulus payments to the population. We can't even agree to print new money to pay for more stimulus checks. This basically kills this conversation until at least November.

Whether it is practical is a more difficult question to answer. You were the one who brought up the whole economy is a circle of life idea. That DoD money doesn't just disappear. It goes to buy good and services and it goes to pay people. Abruptly stopping those payments would cause economic problems just like stopping people from paying mortgages. I would even bet that the multiplier is higher for DoD spending than mortgage spending based on the recipients of the money. Would this mean that DoD spending is better for the economy than mortgage spending? I honestly have no idea. Although I do agree that this country should reduce DoD spending and increase spending on social problems long term, it isn't as easy as making an immediate transition in the middle of a pandemic.