Comment by zaroth | Hacker News Reader

Comment by zaroth | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

The vast majority of 25-45 year olds will never have to miss an entire month of work due to an illness.

Now with this action, an entire segment of the economy is being wiped out for at least a month, and it happens to correspond to a segment which is extremely unlikely to have any PTO or sick time policy.

Most 25-35 year olds are not prepared to lose a month of income without suffering serious financial hardship. That’s reality. Not an “abdication of personal responsibility” at all.

The people taking it on the chin here are simply not the people at risk from this virus. Do I think they will literally starve? No, likely not. But they will be suffering serious financial hardship as a result of these actions, when they are in fact extremely unlikely to suffer health consequences from COVID.

The vast majority faces something. Granted the alternator failing on your car is not anywhere near the same disaster, but the effect is the same. You need an emergency fund

This is precisely the type of situation governments should help with.

Realistically most people can get by on credit in an emergency such as this.

If they have credit to begin with.

Without employment it is difficult.

Do you think credit-card companies are looking forward to this?

Credit card companies (really, banks issuing credit) survived 2008. Pretty sure they'll be fine this time around.

Somewhere between 70 and 80% of people have credit cards, so most people. No this doesn't help everyone, we need the government to step up.

Lending money is what banks do, so I don't see why they are going to be upset about people using credit...

Already seeing a lot of intergenerational hostility with this including the nickname "Boomer Remover" for the virus. Requiring Millennials to sacrifice their wellbeing for the sake of generations that they already harbor ill towards will exacerbate that generational conflict further. Doesn't mean it shouldn't be done, just that there will be lasting social consequences.

I am hoping that government bailouts will help the working poor and small businesses first. The current administration doesn't have a clue though, so I am not holding my breath.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com