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Yes. It’s as if sending out hundreds of millions of checks during an unprecedented economic crisis might be somewhat of a challenge for the people who have to make it happen on an instantaneously urgent basis...


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Does that appear to be the case for the millions of people already receiving checks from the government?

I think handing out checks during a crisis is vastly different than doing it all the time.

Signing checks for themselves is also lot of work.

To me this speaks more to the need for major money transfers to have more programmatic checks in place as well aa 2nd person signoffs.

This would require more checks, not fewer?

Possibly with the exception of business. The property management company my girlfriend runs fields literally thousands of checks a month and sends hundreds a week.

This is the norm in the United States when actual money is involved.


“There are $20 trillion checks up there waiting to be cashed,”

>a large check appears

Plus think of all the opportunities for checks to get “sent” but “lost in the mail”, sent for the incorrect amount (always lower than the amount owed,) and not be eligible for payment at all until the provider accrues a certain dollar amount…

Endless possibilities!


Often, not even that much, as the check is just one of many jobs the personal has to execute. The other jobs won't disappear just because they might not check now.

It just happens that a capitalist writing a large number of checks happen to write a couple of right ones. And often we need them to write some wrong ones too.

My guess is checks. Very large checks.

This seems like a technology problem, not a personnel problem. There should be more checks in a system when you are changing bank accounts where so much money is going to be deposited.

> Simple transactions require more planning. Employees must leave earlier to cash their paychecks, says Ms. Baker, who plans to add automatic deposit next year.

Paychecks... As a European I'm always suprised about how primitive the US financial system is.


Just to be clear, I was talking specifically about "the circumstances zz865 describes", meaning generic large bureaucratic organizations. I meant that as distinguishing it from the circumstances of the original article, but I should have been more clear. I entirely believe there are situations like you describe where the checks are both necessary and properly funded.

It's never been easier to be a check writer, money printing with wreckless abandon, venture capital throwing money at anybody with a pulse.

This is what a market with an oversupply of check writers looks like.


There is a world of difference between cutting 8 $20k checks from 100+ applicants and cutting 1 $160k check on the fly. Yes, it would be awesome if we could just pull $200k out of the sky on a day's notice. But unless the dollar goes somewhere very unpleasant, that isn't going to happen.

> Mailing a check to transfer money

Real 1800 vibes here.


At five figure checks, they can send it via carrier pigeon if they like :).
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