[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by jfman

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I can only speak from personal experience I’m working from home on 100% of my salary and saving about two thirds of it each month. Before Covid-19 I was much more active in the economy - going out for meals, after work drinks, cinema, football matches etc. and making more modest savings.

I’m likely to have the ability to work from home well into next year and if the virus is prevalent in my local community (or the city to which I used to regularly commute) I’m unlikely to start spending as much again. There’s likely to be hundreds of thousands, if not millions, working from home in a similar boat - spending less and not going to until they feel it’s safe to do so (either for personal health or job security reasons).

That impacts on every service sector, hospitality, retail, etc. going forward.

Fundamentally the whole economy needs restructured to rebalance the gains of the Amazons of this world with the costs to bread and butter local businesses hit hardest. This is the bitterest pill to swallow for “small c” conservatives who see no role for the state and uninhibited free markets as the answer. If they are the answer - the question most definitely isn’t how to we respond to Coronavirus.

It's all very well with coming out with idealistic suggestions of this type. It's somewhat vacuous, if you'll forgive me for saying so.
For what my opinion is worth, it's the tax laws that need restructuring and simplifying so that the dodges used by the likes of Amazon cannot succeed.
At the end of the day, taxes generated from business success must pay for all this.