• Macaw@lemmy.ca
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    2 years ago

    Sure, give CERB to millions of people who don’t need it. Brilliant idea. That program was rolled out as fast as humanly possible and people expect perfection…

      • PortableHotpocket@lemmy.ca
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        2 years ago

        The cost would have been a lot higher. Either you have to reduce the dollar value for each recipient to keep the total amount the same, or, more likely, keep the dollar value the same for each recipient, “create” more money overall, and spike inflation significantly worse than it already has been.

        You can’t just put so much money into circulation like that at once. The amount we already put in for covid relief is a big contributor to the inflation we have seen over the past few years. It devalues savings like mad, hurting tons of middle and retirement age people who have to live off of those savings for the rest of their lives.

        • Rediphile@lemmy.ca
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          2 years ago

          For anyone curious, 6.5m out of the 38m total population claimed it. So it would cost close to 6x as much if given to everyone (if even children included).

          I support the concept of basic income in general, but this was a different situation specific to COVID job loss.