You can get 80 per cent of your salary, and sometimes even 100 per cent, without actually working. Companies are getting virtually free loans, and can dump their often troublesome staff on the Treasury payroll, and entrepreneurs can get direct injections of cash from the state without actually having to launch any products.
Sure we can understand why the Government has stepped in with so much cash. It needs to stop the economy collapsing, and a lot of businesses would have gone under already if that support was not available. But there’s a catch. We’ve just created the biggest free lunch in history, and we shouldn’t be surprised if some people start to enjoy it.
It might be boring, but the polling is starting to show that lockdown is a lot more popular than anyone ever imagined it would be. According to YouGov, 88 per cent of people think it would be wrong to start loosening restrictions now – only 5 per cent are in favour.
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