The free market's probably going to have to solve a lot of things by itself by being creative and going government-less or by serving up easy solutions to the government. Politicians are going to be focused on scoring points by blaming the other side for the lack of any action.
I'd mentioned yesterday some theories on how the businesses could get shut down could be transformed into temporary options that would contribute to needs.
Quarter-baked idea:
A new need - childcare/education for children whose schools have shut down and who have parents that still work at actual workplaces.
A now shutdown resource - spaces that served as restaurants that now can't function, particularly if there's no work traffic around them to even survive on carryout.
Some coordination where those restaurants could be cleaned up and made safe and host 25-ish kids and keep their schooling going using the restaurant's wi-fi? Get money funneled from local school districts to those restaurants to serve as the new restaurant income and give independent childcare/education workers a place to earn some money.
Shitloads of details I'm not considering and that may be completely untenable, but that's the sort of creativity I'd like to see in pairing new needs with now suddenly untapped resources to help some businesses and their employees survive in unique ways.
A lot of places here got shut down weeks ago just by people already somewhat voluntarily not trafficking and I know of at least one that did a transformation from fine dining to drive-through sandwiches and scaled down meal delivery. They're probably going to have to think even more outside the box. Maybe trying to do "office catering" but instead of to office buildings, to apartments and condos where hundreds of people are working from home but independently from each other.
I will give you sincere credit for the idea, but it does little to nothing to mitigate social distancing, given that these kids have to be dropped off and picked up. There is zero percent chance that the all the parents of these 25 kids do nothing but go straight home and to work. In addition to this, it doesn't serve the purpose of keeping the hostesses, valets, wait staff, dishwashers, bussers, cooks, bartenders, etc. employed. Using the already designated school and day care spaces is far less risky.
I know it isn't palatable to you, and I absolutely get it, I feel the same way, but the only solution here is a governmental solution. It won't happen but the instant/temporary UBI is the best solution I've seen. Private sector solutions won't work because the scale is too small and there are too many disparate agendas.
Actually private sector could be a more efficient solution than the government but it would require Amazon, Wal-Mart, Apple, Berkshire Hathaway, and Alphabet to get together to do something.
