Quote:

if you give 300 million people 23 thousand dollars, shouldn't that jump start the economy pretty hard?



That would cost 7 *trillion* dollars. You're off by an order of magnitude.

And the immediate problem isn't "jump starting" the economy, it's jump starting the credit markets that is important. Giving people money to spend doesn't do any good if none of the manufacturers can afford to make things for them to buy.

In other words, the point is to keep businesses in general going to avoid massive shutdowns and layoffs. Getting consumers to spend isn't a problem yet .
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"If they can't picture me with a knife, forcing them to strip in an alley, I don't want any part of it. It's humiliating." - windsock