And now the Ubi folks want this.
Nothing changes. Same BS.
1. The pandemic reveals major holes in the social safety net that people are pretty upset about.
2. One party wants the patch the holes, and they continue to feel that way. The other party regards the holes as grimly necessary to keep people properly motivated, or part of God's divine plan, or impossibly expensive to fix in spite of the fact that less wealthy countries manage it, or something, and they continue to feel that way.
therefore
3. Woo, both sides are equally crazy!!!
This is why we can't have nice things.
See how I can easily spin it the other way?
I hate to say it--and I hope this doesn't sound too flippant--but I think you're doing exactly what I described.
If you started out thinking that your ideology is clearly correct and the opposition has nefarious motives, then rather than this disaster leading anyone to question their beliefs, it will stand to reinforce them.
> If you started out thinking that your ideology is clearly correct and the opposition has nefarious motives, then rather than this disaster leading anyone to question their beliefs, it will stand to reinforce them.
If you're the kind of person who gives a damn about "motives" instead of ideas and policies, well... it is understandable at times, but that's not something to aspire to.
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.
I am not necessarily saying it's a bad idea, I am just jaded that solutions always follow existing political ties.
I am sure there are logical arguments for it. But there are also logical arguments for tax cuts right now.
I am just an idiot on the internet. All I can say is I get skeptical whenever an idea purports to solve any situation that arises.
I suppose I just get skeptical whenever a solution has been proposed that is apparently a panacea to all of societies problems. When 'x' has been purported to solve everything for 30 years, I start to get skeptical about x has any bearing on whatever disaster occured today.
What we need is to get over this pandemic as quickly as possible so we can stop disrupting trade and get people back to work. The news coming out of China is encouraging, and production seems to be slowly returning to normal.
Any discussion about UBI should be based on the long term merits, not a reaction to any current crisis. QE is a bit different, but honestly I think it does more harm than good much of the time, especially once it makes it through the political system.
The Fed steps in, makes some loans or buys some securities -- when the disaster abates, they get some money back from their loans and sell the securities for a profit.