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Comment by Scoundreller | Hacker News Reader

But who should the government punish? Everyone equally? The richest X%? The poorest X%? Particular industr[y,ies]?

If everyone says “not us, somebody else!” there will be no redistribution.

The parent comment is proposing a system where nobody is punished, everything is deferred. Not all landlords are fat cats in a mansion, if you remove the flow of cash to only some people, those people will be crushed if they depend on that flow to send it further upstream.

Deferring payment without interest is punishment. Goods in the future are worth less than the same goods in the present.

And where's someone unemployed going to get 3 month's of rent if they only work in 0 or 1 of the next 3 months?

That's why you're supposed to have savings, but it seems these days people prefer to spend frivolously

Landlords and tenants alike it seems.

But we've increased rent to rule out savings.

I mean, by definition, landlords own more homes than they need. Worst case scenario, the asset doesn't disappear, it just gets put to auction for someone that can afford it to buy it.

Possibly the government could restrict that auction to non-property owners to help sort out the first-sentence problem.

To me, under circumstances universal income may be the most sensible solution. Which would also largely avoid questions like this one (btw everyone still going to take a hit - no doubt about that, but at least it could be negotiated between parties then). Governments still need to figure out if they have enough resources though - it's a lot of work if one is willing to take it.

Unfortunately, what I see instead here in Canada is heavy subsidies for large banks who are just passing it as more debt to everyone else. May do even more harm long-term.

Do you own a business?

Why do you think universal income solves the problem of an entertainment company that is legally shutdown, has zero income, and can’t pay it’s bills?

At it’s core, aren’t you just suggesting we become communists (for a while?). Disclaimer: I am from what might be called a liberal socialist capitalist country (I might call myself a capitalist hippy).

The goal is to get organized. Whatever the solution might be I'm sure people will call it communism and they might not be to far off either.

Wait! You just gave me a hilarious idea! If people have to stay home for months we might as well pay them to enroll in some kind of online course. You know, re-education, only without the camp.

Is ‘punish’ even the right term? We’re all equally screwed one way or another. Everywhere in the world.

The government should punish itself. Issue more debt and backstop unemployment. Otherwise, it will just propagate.

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