business-owner and payroll-payer here. i have a lot of acquaintances and friends with *small* businesses.
who is OK? WFH-capable employers thanks to PPP.
who is not? anyone who acts as an aggregator of tasks that get parceled out to 1099 ICs (salons, yoga studios, lot of trades)

solutions: up PPP with a profit-test so, eg, a salon owner with a hefty rent bill can survive and pay rent until they can open, ditto for a restaurant or bar that went to zero-revenue or a small-scale furniture manufacturer that had almost no jobs and was ordered closed

step 2: anyone on a w-2 basis or 1099 who’s usual weekly hours or usual weekly billings were cut: make them whole. if they have fixed expenses like rent and utilities: make that whole, too.

landlords: make any rent forgiveness a 50% refundable tax credit. ditto for mortgage interest forgiveness. tenants? 100% deductibility of rent forgiveness. create a system of incentives for people to work things out amongst themselves. cheaper, more efficient, better distribution

that gets tou 90% or more to where we need to be and doesnt require unnecessary complexity. if a few bad actors game it for a little bit of money, its not a big deal in thr big scheme of things because you saved the economy

real economy still not getting better on this front. still plenty of time to act. massive transfers to state & local + UEI extension + the benefits previously mentioned. save most of the economy.. or do nothing and stall and continue to see rolling 5-15% layoffs announced