The slides by themselves do not speak a compelling narrative to me, so I think I’m missing something fundamental or not understanding.
Small businesses (all, businesses) will suffer quite badly, but if your company cannot continue operating because its shut/slowed down for 2 weeks then it’s likely that your business was running on a knifes edge and /any/ shock would have killed it.
Arguing that many people have done this is not just cause to bail them out (speaking from a purely logical non-empathetic position)
EDIT: ok. Our entire economy is built with no buffers in place and people here seem to have no issue with that. From a personal finance perspective I ensure that I live beneath my means and have capacity for a couple of months lost revenue. (Shit happens) and I’m not “well paid”.
" then it’s likely that your business was running on a knifes edge and /any/ shock would have killed it."
Welcome to... life? This is how America or even the world works. Most people live on knife's edge. One missed paycheck? Homelessness just got its greasy hands on you. Two missed paychecks? Go pack what you have left... Most business are not any different, especially those run by regular people.
In my family we have a quite successful business in the sense that the person running it, has quite a fancy lifestyle and can afford it. But you have to realize that most business have terrible margins. Our family business has maybe a margin of 10%. That means, for every 10.000$ you take home before taxes every month, your business has running expenses of about 100.000$ per month. Now restaurants are all closed... Nobody will buy your stuff anymore, but your employess still need to get paid. So now you have those 100.000$ monthly costs and not a single dime coming in... There is no reasonable expectation to save this much buffer.
In short, even business that run extremely well, will die within A MONTH, if all expenses continue and no income is generated. This is why I think what they are doing for this petty virus is quite insane. They are destroying the middle class for some "theoretical" projection that might not even play out the way they think. What is guaranteed though is that businesses will die in troves and the economy and middle class with it.
>They are destroying the middle class for some "theoretical" projection that might not even play out the way they think. What is guaranteed though is that businesses will die in troves and the economy and middle class with it.
Look at the age of the people making the decisions. If you were 60+, unhealthy, and had the option of minimising your own risk of catching the disease by stopping the economy, you sure you wouldn't take it, regardless of the long term damage it would do to the country?
The greatest outcome differentiator we have control over right now is whether or not a person can get adequate care or not. It seems like that can make a difference in the realm of points; big boy points.
Our top political leadership would not be left wanting for medical care if they needed it. Pelosi and McConnell are both in for keeping congress together in DC vs running and hiding at home. "Going down with the ship" so to speak.
Top marks for your cynicism. Low marks for the focus of it.
> but if your company cannot continue operating because its shut/slowed down for 2 weeks then it’s likely that your business was running on a knifes edge and /any/ shock would have killed it.
Nearly all businesses in reasonably competitive markets have thin margins. You buy a widget and sell it for 30% more, but then most of that 30% goes to rent and utilities and salaries etc. Your actual net profit margin is more like 2%.
The result is that most businesses do fail if they're hit with any kind of major shock. Which happens all the time. It's supposed to. Mistakes have consequences. A business failing here and there is reasonable and expected.
But it's a completely different kind of problem when it happens to everybody all at once.
This is like saying, if you are in credit card debt and not prepared for a disaster, you are on your own. While this is true, this logic simply doesn't work in aggregate because the status quo is millions of people are in debt. Similarly, most small businesses operate with very little operating cash flow, and that is simply how our economy operates.
i dont think that s fair. in an efficient market, profit margins are slim for the benefit of the consumer, which means businesses are not super profitable and need to invest continuously.
Small businesses (all, businesses) will suffer quite badly, but if your company cannot continue operating because its shut/slowed down for 2 weeks then it’s likely that your business was running on a knifes edge and /any/ shock would have killed it.
Arguing that many people have done this is not just cause to bail them out (speaking from a purely logical non-empathetic position)
EDIT: ok. Our entire economy is built with no buffers in place and people here seem to have no issue with that. From a personal finance perspective I ensure that I live beneath my means and have capacity for a couple of months lost revenue. (Shit happens) and I’m not “well paid”.