Who should you help during the coronavirus pandemic?

By helping businesses you are helping people

Question: Who should you help during the coronavirus pandemic?
Position‹5 of 8›: Help businesses
Argument: By helping businesses you are helping people

In helping local businesses, you are contributing to people's salaries and helping to keep people employed at this testing time.

The argument

Restaurants and bars have been forced to close their doors to patrons, however, many are still able to serve food for pickup or delivery. Ordering food from these restaurants, or buying gift cards to your favourite bar, allows them to keep cash coming in during the pandemic and keep their employees on staff.

Context

Giving businesses your custom allows them to keep their employees on and helps families maintain an income.

Premises

[P1]Restaurants and bars forced to close to patrons can often still serve food for pickup or delivery, so ordering from them or buying gift cards keeps cash flowing into the business. [P2] That revenue allows these businesses to keep their employees on staff, meaning support directed at the business reaches the people who depend on it for work. [C] Because supporting businesses sustains the people they employ, by helping businesses you are helping people.

Counter-arguments

If the end goal is to help people, why not just help the people directly. For every $1 spent at a business, the government takes a cut of it in taxes, the businesses takes some to cover operating expenses and a fraction of the whole dollar is spent on staffing. The $1 would fo far further if we gave it directly to the people that need it.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P3] If the goal is to help workers, help them directly.