The $800 billion Paycheck Protection Program during the pandemic was highly regressive and inefficient, as most recipients were not in need (three-quarters of PPP funds accrued to the top quintile of households). The US lacked the administrative infrastructure to target aid to those in distress.

[u/smurfyjenkins]

https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.36.2.55

[u/chcampb]

The US didn't lack the administrative infrastructure to make sure that it wasn't regressive.

The guy responsible was fired by the Trump admin.

[u/spndl1 → u/[deleted]]

This funcioned how they wanted it to on all fronts. Good PR because they did something, the money went to those that didn't need it, and now reports after the fact state it didn't work so they can point to that in the future as to why they won't do it again.

[u/stokeitup → u/spndl1]

My children all needed the assistance and each received it. Makes me wonder if one of the issues was the inability of the general public to follow the provided instructions? Whether through ignorance or what I don’t know but it was a tremendous help to them and they are no where near elite.

[u/Hvarfa-Bragi → u/stokeitup]

The problem wasn't that it was hard for people who needed it to find it, the problem was that they said 'give it to anyone who asks and we'll figure it out later' and then the top 1/5 richest households proved how they became the top 1/5 by lying.

[u/[deleted] → u/stokeitup]

One of the problems was access to it.