> But preserving jobs was expensive. The study found that, depending on the assumptions, the cost per job saved for one year was $169,000 to $258,000, which was much higher than the average amount—$58,200—paid in wages and benefits to small-business employees in 2020.
Crazy to think that potentially 3-5x more benefit could have gone to people actually losing their jobs via normal unemployment insurance instead of this scheme.
But that’s the wrong way to look at this. You can’t just compare dollar for dollar while ignoring the effects of millions of companies closing down and never reopening.
You also can't ignore the businesses that pocketed the money instead of paying their employees
I just can’t see it that way. I imagine that simply funding unemployment would have let companies right size in the moment and then rehire as they got their footing again. Meanwhile folks that were unemployed could just take care of themselves and family instead of just doing busywork.