[sofixa]

But during a pandemic when lots of businesses were impacted, lots of jobs were lost. Many companies had hiring freezes, even in sectors that didn't care( e.g. Google).

If someone lost their job due to this, and gets evicted, there was no guarantee they would be able to find any job, anywhere. So moving to a cheaper place wasn't really an option.

I find it weird that Americans still argue about the eviction moratoriums and the money given to people to avoid mass homelessness and hopefulness. Nobody in France is arguing against the "partial unemployment" scheme that was implemented here that allowed employers to not lay off people and instead the government paid their salary( to an extent of course), or eviction moratoriums.

If anything, the criticism was that many people fell through the cracks.

[rsj_hn]

> there was no guarantee they would be able to find any job,

Yes, there are no guarantees - ever.

> So moving to a cheaper place wasn't really an option.

Woah. How does that follow, now? While it's true that there are no guarantees in life, you always have options. But living in a place that you can't afford is not really one of them. Life is full of all sorts of crazy things that happen to you unexpectedly, and absolutely none of them entitle you to live beyond your means once your savings are exhausted. Now there are safety nets for income like unemployment insurance or SS disability, and with covid additional tax refunds were given, but none of these income insurance programs will be enough to make up for a lost job, so if you are one of those who lost their job due to covid, then your means will be reduced. And whatever those lower means are, you need to be able to pay rent from those means. It doesn't matter whether your means were reduced by covid or foreign competition or rising interest rates or going through a divorce.

Moreover the alternative view, that you don't need to pay your bills because covid happened, is a truly toxic form of entitlement.

[chii]

whilst all of that is true, temporary support from society for dealing with natural disasters (of which a pandemic is one) is justified.

[rsj_hn]

the support by society are the checks that were mailed out. Not a "I shouldn't have to pay my bills" waiver, or general waiver from all resposibility.

[sofixa]

If you have no revenues and don't know when you'll have any, moving to a cheaper place is a temporary "fix" you don't know for how long you could afford.

[rsj_hn]

yes, but that's what you still need to do. I got news for you -- we are all gonna die and sometimes life sucks. Yet we still have to pay for things.