RetireJapan

Beaglehound wrote: ↑Sat May 02, 2020 2:53 am Hopefully the subsidy comes through for you. I’m in a rural area that relies a lot on inbound tourism and a lot of people I know are suffering, especially if they have big overheads.

Kanto wrote: ↑Thu May 07, 2020 3:46 am When it comes to the individual Covid19 subsidy, for individuals and families (100,000Yen), should everyone claim it?

I am wondering from an ethical standpoint what the best course of action is. It is literally free money for anyone to claim.

My wife and I were not that badly affected. However, am I foolish not to claim it?

1. It's a universal benefit, so the expection is that it will be claimed universally. If the government wanted to put more fine-grained requirements, they could have, but they didn't.
2. Any kind of injection of cash into the economy causes inflation, which lowers the value of your own cash (more cash everywhere, but the same amount of stuff = higher prices). Usually this is injected via giving the money to banks, which you can't do anything about, but this time they're giving some of it to individuals. By not taking the money, you're still subject to inflation, but don't get any direct benefit. May as well also take your share.
3. We pay taxes with no questions asked, we should apply the same diligence to handouts. Imagine if it was a tax break instead of a handout. Logically equivalent (unless you pay less than 100k in taxes), but I doubt people would have the same moral dilemma when given the chance to pay less tax

Kanto wrote: ↑Thu May 07, 2020 3:46 am When it comes to the individual Covid19 subsidy, for individuals and families (100,000Yen), should everyone claim it?

I am wondering from an ethical standpoint what the best course of action is. It is literally free money for anyone to claim.

My wife and I were not that badly affected. However, am I foolish not to claim it?

What about my infant son's allotment? Should I claim his and put in in a NISA and let him decide in the future?

Just curious about what everyone is thinking. My rational self-interest is battling with my conscience.

Wales4rugbyWC19 wrote: ↑Sat May 09, 2020 5:19 am Sorry to be a party pooper, but how is the Japanese government going to finance all this fiscal largesse? This is not to say that I think it is a bad thing. Personally, running my own business I have been affected but nothing like some other people, including on this blog. I will be applying for the rental support because we closed our business for a month and the 100,000 yen per individual for family members.
Anyway getting back to the point, I think for the Tohoku tsunami, all government workers got quite a significant pay cut for a couple/few years and they took away the child tax allowance on your tax return to finance the rebuilding. Japan is the most fiscally indebted country in the world, so they can't finance it purely by issuing more government bonds. Maybe another rise is sales tax, getting rid of the ridiculous furosato nozei or getting rid of the JET programme...

OkLah! wrote: ↑Sat May 09, 2020 7:51 am All this made me realized how actually I had it “easy” last few decades.

It required hard work of course but the environment was not harsh. It enabled to continuously have work and being able to save and ultimately own a place.

If I were a 20 years old something today I don’t know how I would feel? This crisis will push economies back 10 years and it may take that much to go back to some normale.

And this just for a few weeks of shutdown. How fragile all this is!

Even if I am too pessimistic it is a really distressing to know that next generation will most probably have less opportunities than mine.

RetireJapan wrote: ↑Sat May 09, 2020 6:39 am

Wales4rugbyWC19 wrote: ↑Sat May 09, 2020 5:19 am Sorry to be a party pooper, but how is the Japanese government going to finance all this fiscal largesse? This is not to say that I think it is a bad thing. Personally, running my own business I have been affected but nothing like some other people, including on this blog. I will be applying for the rental support because we closed our business for a month and the 100,000 yen per individual for family members.
Anyway getting back to the point, I think for the Tohoku tsunami, all government workers got quite a significant pay cut for a couple/few years and they took away the child tax allowance on your tax return to finance the rebuilding. Japan is the most fiscally indebted country in the world, so they can't finance it purely by issuing more government bonds. Maybe another rise is sales tax, getting rid of the ridiculous furosato nozei or getting rid of the JET programme...

Don't think it matters. More government debt that will be eroded by inflation or growth in the economy eventually. All countries are doing this at the moment.