In an ideal world, your vision of people doing what they should do would happen. In fact, in an ideal world there would be no need for laws of any kind. People would just do the right thing. Libertianism and communism would both work beautifully. I wish that we lived in that world, but nothing I've experienced in life tells me that we do.
Amen! So many people are unable to understand that when it come to their pet "ideology".
On the bright side I am in an industry that will likely pull through, so hopefully I won't have a need for a subsidy anyway. Fingers crossed.
Why, instead of all that unemployment wailing and programs and whatever, you simply keep the people working for their firms?
In Germany we have "Shorted Work Money". In a case of severe economical problems, companies cut the hours people work (e.g. by half).
People still get their fully salary, just the state pays most of that part. ...oh, now I know why it is a no-go in the US.
Anyway, with this people keep their income, companies their trained workers, and the bureocracy isn't overwhelmed with the unemployed horde. Also it dampens the economic impact because people still have their money.
It is not a perfect tool, but it is better than just let everything go into ruins, I am sure.
Yeah. And “wording things well” is a pretty significant part of the job of President of the United States.
A little besides:
Most of you likely don't know that Germany indeed has a president (Bundespräsident), who is officially the highest person in state - not the Chancellor.
The president's role is mainly ceremonically and while some are important powers they are generally not ah... used influentially (a bit like the English Queen I guess?)
The president is also elected by a singular institution: Die Bundesversammlung consists in half of the members of parliament and another half by people elected by the members of the state parliaments (so could be everyone, that is deemed "worthy").
Since most of the president's powers are only the power of word, the persons elected tend to be a bit better than Trump in this regard. It also offers unique possibilities in diplomacy: The president can do official state visits but has no direct power, so he can be a sort of ice breaker or negotiator for heavy stuff.