The case for a national hardship fund

As normal life rapidly shuts up shop around us, there’s a need to salvage something positive from the chaos. So perhaps there’s a good story yet to be written about that oldest but most unfashionable of virtues, charity. Before you roll your eyes, I am not saying that, in a time of such sudden and sharp economic downturn, we must dig deep into our pockets to help those struggling more than us. That’s admirable behaviour at any time, and if it’s still an option for you, all power to your elbow. Instead, I have in mind those businesses and entrepreneurs that – by virtue of this sudden inversion of human behaviour – now find their profits soaring. Some would say this is just the rough-and-tumble of capitalism; others will say that money made in a crisis feels dirtier in the hand than that won in the calm waters of peacetime consumerism.