Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

One way to fight a coronavirus recession: $1k for every American

axios.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 287 posts

Re: One way to fight a coronavirus recession: $1k for every American

#61

Post by PeterisP »

ntsplnkv2 wrote: post #33
PeterisP wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> pay things that I'd already have been paying anyway That's kind of the point. With a nearly imminent lockdown, many people would not be able to pay for things that they have been paying all the time, and that will bankrupt companies and break the economy. A cash injection that allows you to pay for things that you're already paying for - and get the basic things you were already getting before - would be quite help…

It's a one time payment. It just delays everything by a month. I fail to see how this solves the problem.

It gives a month to implement more complex measures. This is something that can be done pretty much instantly, a better solution needs time, this gives time.

Re: One way to fight a coronavirus recession: $1k for every American

#63

Post by xyzzyz »

lsllc wrote: post #47

I think something like a $10K tax rebate per person would be more appropriate. 1. It'll help people cover their bills 2. It'll put a shit-ton of money out to help reboot the economy when this all blows over.

Tax rebate doesn’t help if you don’t pay any tax, and if you’re out of work, you’re also not paying tax.

For example, if you normally make the median income of $30k, but quarantine put you out of work for 3 months, you’re down to $22,500, your federal tax bill is ~$2700, and so this is most you can get from tax rebate. If you have children, this is even lower.

While I agree that tax rebates are typically correct approach, here it’s not the case: they won’t help much those who most need it, and they’ll help most those who don’t need them at all.

Re: One way to fight a coronavirus recession: $1k for every American

#64

Post by NamTaf »

Gunax wrote: post #15

I too think this is silly. Everyone wants to use this disaster to achieve the policy goals they wanted anyway. Republicans want to use it as an excuse for tax cuts. Democrats want to expand public healthcare and benefits. Everyone is trying to attach riders for domestic violence victims or pork spending or whatever pet issue they have. And now the Ubi folks want this. Nothing changes. Same BS.

This is hardly a UBI. It's also been done before, for example in Australia during the GFC.

The idea is to get money into the hands of people who will actually spend it - the poor will tend to go buy their kid a desperately needed new pair of school shoes, for example, whereas the rich will just throw it in with their other savings. Only one of those stimulates the economy in the short term.

Re: One way to fight a coronavirus recession: $1k for every American

#65

Post by belltaco »

Jtsummers wrote: post #50
macinjosh wrote: post #45

This makes no sense. Why would we give money to every American instead of just those that really need help? If you aren’t living paycheck to paycheck just to cover necessities you should have savings to fallback on. We should be giving money and help only to people who need it. Not people who have over extended themselves with credit card or student loan debt and no savings. People with means could use a lesson in pe…

Because means testing requires a massive, and in this case ad hoc, bureaucracy established to evaluate who should get money. Good luck establishing that. Mailing out checks is actually cheaper and technically feasible, in comparison. Additionally, not everyone in debt got there by way of lack of personal responsibility. One ambulance ride and ER would send many minimum wage earners into debt, even if they were respon…

I think the IRS is much better set up for this than state run welfare programs. Send a check out to everyone now but collect $950 more in taxes next year from only folks that made more than $XX,XXX amount of money in 2020. Also you could make it so that uncashed checks would be cancelled by next year and you get a $50 extra refund.

Re: One way to fight a coronavirus recession: $1k for every American

#66

Post by imperialdrive »

Ididntdothis wrote: post #37

That seems pretty silly. Me and probably a lot of other people would just put it aside and save because we don’t need the money. And for the people in some industries who are at risk of losing their jobs this is laughably little money. In Germany there is a concept called “Kurzarbeit”. Companies reduce work hours and salaries across the board and unemployment insurance makes up for some of it. This way mass layoffs a…

You, me, others may not need it, but then again we'd be paying for it with assets getting hit because if I understand correctly, this would be in place of bigger bail-outs so our stock/401k/real estate etc would take a hefty hit knowing we won't starve even with big losses.

Re: One way to fight a coronavirus recession: $1k for every American

#67

Post by NamTaf »

tln wrote: post #27

How about a $10k loan instead? Zero interest, paid back through IRS over 10 years, with decreasing amounts available based on last years income.

A loan may not encourage spending in the same way free, no-strings-attached money does. For example, if you're poor and struggling pay-to-pay, would you like the idea of borrowing knowing that it'll bite you later on when you have to survive on even less money due to paying back the loan?

On the other hand, absolutely no-strings-attached money might see you spend it on something that you've needed for a while but haven't been able to afford.

Re: One way to fight a coronavirus recession: $1k for every American

#68

Post by peterwoerner »

tjr225 wrote: post #3

Am I way out of band or does that seem like a comically small amount of money for the average American? I live in an extremely low COL area and live well within my current means. Assuming my work dries up and I don't have any savings, 3k$ would buy me two months tops. Just to give you an idea of how cheaply I live: Mortgage is ~800$/mo, Car is a paid off 2006 Toyota Highlander, Student loan minimums of ~400$/mo, My w…

I mean, yes and no. It isn't enough to live for any significant length of time, but it would make a material difference for those living paycheck to paycheck.

Re: One way to fight a coronavirus recession: $1k for every American

#69

Post by unlinked_dll »

tjr225 wrote: post #3

Am I way out of band or does that seem like a comically small amount of money for the average American? I live in an extremely low COL area and live well within my current means. Assuming my work dries up and I don't have any savings, 3k$ would buy me two months tops. Just to give you an idea of how cheaply I live: Mortgage is ~800$/mo, Car is a paid off 2006 Toyota Highlander, Student loan minimums of ~400$/mo, My w…

It is comically small, both in terms of impact and necessity.

It costs about $75 billion a week to pay the hourly workers of America. We can do that, even if it's only a fraction for the companies that don't have the cash on hand to do it for 4-5 weeks.

Post reply on HN