> We want to give people an economic incentive to go out and mix with people in the middle of a pandemic.
No, but we do want to incentivize those essential workers who are risking their health and who are often at or barely above minimum wage. Workers at long term care homes, grocery stores, schools, et cetera.
But such a plan is only superficially similar to the crazy Deutsche Bank plan.
If there were any problem with filling these positions, employers would offer higher wages until they could find someone to fill these "essential" roles or accept that maybe they're not so essential after all. In a properly functioning economy, people who risk their lives and do the things others are unwilling or unable to do but need to get done get paid a premium. If essential employees can't leverage their irreplaceability into higher wages, that suggests a deep systemic problem. This sort of welfare would allow the economy to get through the current crisis without addressing that problem and then get back to suppressing wages as usual.
>The tax would be paid for by employers and the income generated would be paid to people who can't do their jobs from home.
That's what we want. We want to give people an economic incentive to go out and mix with people in the middle of a pandemic.
I'm working from home right now, but if you told me 5% of my pay would be taxed because of it I'd be back in the office like a shot.
>In the UK, Deutsche Bank calculates the tax would generate a pot of £6.9bn a year, which could pay
...For the massive cost of a huge wave of COVID caused by office workers who have been forced back into central london via public transport.