Instead of bailing out predatory industries like casinos, maybe we should bail out the small bars and restaurants that employ millions of people, run on tiny margins, and are being explicitly forced to shut down for the greater good?
If this goes on for two months (it will), every single non-chain restaurant is going to fold. Do we to want to rebuild our entire service industry from scratch when this is done, one restaurant at a time?
If the Restaurant Apocalypse is allowed to take place, it's not just going to cause a massive prolonged increase in unemployment. It's going to wipe out virtually all urban amenities. Combine that with cheap gas, and you've created perfect conditions for an explosion of sprawl.
It's important to recognize that, for these industries, this isn't just a recession, where business declines. They are being (or will be) explicitly ordered to shut their doors, instantly setting revenue to zero. No one else - airlines, hotels, anyone - is facing the same.
