The issue is that it isn't just restaurants and cruise lines. How many of the shops in the local mall are in trouble if people stay home and order from Amazon? What happens to gas stations and convenience stores and truck stops if people are temporarily driving less? What happens to charter bus companies? Local community organizations? Conference organizers?
Pretending that we can predict what all the effects are going to be on everyone and centrally plan optimal resource allocation is dangerous hubris.
> In addition, I don't think its economically sensible to ask every business (say restaurant) to plan for a 2 year pandemic. It would just be inefficient. I think its right to handle that risk at the gov't level. It's all of our problem.
That's kind of the point. When times are tough, that's the time for the government to borrow money and use it to help people out. But they're notoriously bad at deciding whether a cruise ship captain deserves it more than a small business owner with a sandwich cart.