In a pandemic, is a fast government check better than a larger one?

Sarah Brewer, general manager at The Mugshot Tavern in Canada’s largest metropolis, was laid off on March 16.

In America’s biggest city, Oscar Santiago was also laid off in mid-March, from his job at the Gun Hill Brewing Co. in the Bronx, in the days after global health officials declared a pandemic that caused a cascade of shutdowns worldwide.

For Ms. Brewer, being fired was followed by a fraught two weeks. “I was having really bad anxiety; I had to jump into home schooling with no income and no idea of what the future would bring,” she says. But by the end of March, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) for Canadians who lost jobs, got sick, had to quarantine, or had care for children out of school. At $2,000 (Canadian; U.S.$1,470) per four-week period, it meets her former salary minus tips, or about 70% of what she

“The difference actually isn’t monetary”“We’re not like Sweden”