People with stable incomes who’ve reduced consumption due to diminished opportunities to do things are over-represented in the policy dialogue relative to people who’ve been forced to curtail spending by income losses.

For every economist with a stable salary but no summer vacation plans there’s a dental hygienist with no clients looking to stretch her grocery dollars further.

The generous treatment of unemployment insurance for low-wage workers partially compensates for this effect, but (a) there are plenty of workers who aren’t at the bottom of the wage distribution and (b) there are plenty of people still working but with fewer hours & customers.

We needed to call a plumber the other day for example and the guy said, not surprisingly, that business has been really slow. He’s not unemployed or furloughed, he’s just making less money even while expenses for masks & gloves are up.

I’m sure he wishes his favorite restaurant were open, but fundamentally he needs to cut back his consumption regardless of what’s open until his customers come back which magic “reopening” can’t accomplish because he’s not closed now.