Really, it's an infrastructure problem. We don't have direct payment rails set up for something like UBI, and the political will to build this infrastructure is next to zero.

Most of the companies receiving relief were badly managed before the pandemic, and they should be allowed to fail. But it's very hard to structure relief in a fair and effective way.

An excellent point.

How many people are/were barely attached to the banking system? Especially if you’re working, well, a bit under the table, in day labor situations like construction or office cleaning.

I got my stimulus check. Basically immediately. Because I have a standard 9–5 salaried job with direct deposit, so the government knew exactly where to send the money. But that seems to obviously not have the force multiplier effect of sending it to someone who just got fired from a movie theater.

It’s based on IRS direct deposit.

…yes, and? I said that. Quote:

“salaried job with direct deposit”

I'm not the above poster, but I took your comment to mean direct deposit from your employer to your account, not direct deposit from the IRS to your account (for tax refunds, which is what I assume the above poster means).

Yep. It's any tax refund setup to direct deposit from the IRS to your bank account. It doesn't matter if you have employer direct deposit. One other problem is that many people in the US are unbanked so they get prepaid debit cards or a check.

> Really, it's an infrastructure problem.

No it's not. Seemed to work fine in July didn't it? It's obviously a political problem. Why can't we just use the same mechanism again?

edit: Maybe you're talking about the business/paycheck replacement relief and not the individual checks like the parent was?

I agree its very difficult and in making decisions like this we will incidentally help pick winners and losers.

I dont think temporary relief will make or break a business model effected by the pandemic. On some of those edge cases we will need to decide whether the government will get their money back or accept losses.

In WW2 we transformed every industry overnight to be geared for war.

I think we can handle setting up a payment system...

Like what kind of weak ass excuse is that? You can't figure out how to pay everyone?

Please. Give me a break.

Ubi is the effective and fair way to stimulate the economy btw.

All this stimulus aimed at businesses is absolutely moronic.

If people know they have secure pay coming in they will spend the money. Its the uncertainty that causes people to hard cash.

Businesses don't need the cash, if they can't stay afloat during this they shouldn't be allowed to make it through.

I do believe they deserve some help,aybe tax breaks, maybe short term allowance to make people redundant / reduce so they can equalise the books but there is no fair way to give them money and not the people.