[kadonoishi]

The government prints money and sends out those $1000 monthly checks so as to continue using money to organize transactions, and the people working essential jobs continue to get paychecks.

Make the distinction between financial capital and money. Money as medium of exchange continues to be used. Money as financial capital assets is paused for the duration of the crisis.

What’s the function of capital? To allocate labor to the highest-value uses. We can’t be bothered with that during a pandemic.

Capital allocation is important, and it is long-term. The pandemic is about short-term physical survival. Providing food water medicine electricity is straightforward enough that it can be done through command, and through the sheer momentum of our existing systems.

We need to drop back to a simpler version of our physical economy for awhile, where people sit in their houses and only use basic necessities. Once it’s all clear we can come out and resume the previous activities; but how exactly do we effectively pause the non-essential activities?

This article is pointing out, rightly, that landlords and rents are non-essential. So pause them along with the rest of the non-essential activities.