Businesses lose cash flow for one month and they can't pay workers. Workers miss one paycheck and they can't make rent. Landlords miss one rent payment and can't pay their mortgage. Banks start seeing mortgage defaults and immediately need a bailout. Everyone's broke! It's broke all the way down. If any one of those in that chain kept a little emergency fund, we wouldn't be in this situation. How did we all manage to build an economy such that we're all paying each other just-in-time to avoid catastrophe?