How you can help boost the economy

SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) -Millions of people in the U.S. have already received their Stimulus Check from the government.

A person eligible for a stimulus check could receive up to $1,200. But how does that impact the economy?

University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee Economics Professor, Michael Snipes, said the checks serve more as a band-aid than anything else. The purpose of the checks are for people to have the means to put money back into the economy. Snipes said from an economic standpoint, to boost the economy people should spend these checks rather than save them.

"About 70% of the economy is consumer spending. So if you have the opportunity to just save it for a rainy day that's probably not a bad idea. But, the whole idea behind the stimulus checks is people will take this and go out and they'll spend it. It's that spending that's going to help prop the economy up for the next month, two months, three months, until we can get back opened up," Snipes said.

He said the situation we're in as a country is different from the recession because this wasn't caused from there being something fundamentally wrong with the economy.

Snipes said when we start to open things back up, he thinks people themselves will recover fairly quickly. However, he doesn't expect the economy to bounce back at once. He predicts that it will be a slow roll out.

Snipes reminds people that the economy is different than the stock market.

"We need to try and focus less on those big metrics, less on GEP, less on what the unemployment number is, and really focus on the people who need the help. Focus on the small businesses and help them out, because that's what the economy is," Snipes said.

Because service based industries are really hurting, he said to help boost the economy people should go out and spend money at those small businesses by doing something like ordering take-out.

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