Helicopter Money Now!
If we have learned anything from the drastic measures taken all over the world in the last few days, it is this: They have been consistently late.
The situation in Germany today: the government measures to contain the corona pandemic are based on the available, reliable data. Most important are the numbers of confirmed infected, seriously ill, and dead.
The problem is that the available figures, which the Robert Koch Institute makes open to the government and the public, are already two days behind schedule. So any order today is based on the situation the day before yesterday.
Added to this is the dark figure of unrecorded infections. Estimates range from unreported numbers between 500 and 1000% compared to the official statistics.
School closures and the ban on meetings with more than ten people are welcome but should have been introduced days ago.
Up to now, there is still no general curfew in Germany, and until yesterday planes from Iran were even allowed to land here.
So we are always at least two steps behind in the fight against epidemics.
When it comes to dealing with the expected economic damage, we are ten rather than two steps behind.
Although the government has promised extensive financial aid for companies of all sizes and has brought into play the deferral of tax payments, this will not save the majority of ordinary citizens from financial ruin.
Businesses will go bankrupt because the financial aid comes too late.
People will lose their jobs and will not be able to find a new one so quickly in the following recession. Solo self-employed people will be bankrupt almost immediately if there are no orders for months.
Giving small businesses and freelancers unbureaucratic access to loans does not help this group because credits have to be paid back at some point.
With the margins in some sectors, this is utopian. As a freelance author, I cannot take out a loan if I don’t know how I will ever be able to pay it back.
That is why we now need comprehensive, unbureaucratic, fast, and non-repayable financial support for every citizen.
Only if the money goes straight into the pockets of consumers will we avoid a fatal and unstoppable chain reaction.
If the student who works in a café no longer earns any money, she can no longer pay her rent. The landlord has a financial loss that he cannot compensate for.
If the landlord can no longer cover his running costs, he has to sell his property. In the recession following the pandemic, only the financially most robust investors will be able to buy up such properties, and they will do so.
Unless we take countermeasures, the corona crisis will lead to Darwinian selection on a scale never before seen. Those who are already rich enough today to survive the crisis unscathed will rush to the ruins and remnants of our economy and buy it up and monopolize it.
These developments are not guaranteed but very likely. There is no firm evidence today to suggest that this will happen, but we should not ignore the high probability.
Helicopter money may be the last resort to prevent this impending collapse and to maintain public confidence in the state’s ability to act.
As things stand today, the idea of helicopter money still seems absurd to some people. But by the time we realize tomorrow that we have no other option, it may already be too late for many.
Let us at least once be faster than the crisis itself in this crisis. Pay the citizens helicopter money. Now.
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