Small business owners next in the firing line amid Covid-19 crisis

That the Covid-19 pandemic will cause severe damage to the Brazilian job market is an inescapable fact. In fact, Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has made this his main platform throughout the crisis, with a discourse prioritizing the economy even above the health of the population. While the president backs irresponsible and unscientific measures of reopening commerce and relaxing social isolation policies, his cabinet has proposed measures to provide financial assistance to the lowest income strata of the population and informal workers, though the implementation of these subsidies is stalling in Brasilia.

Though these groups are rightly identified as being vulnerable and in need of assistance, the government cannot forget about the legion of very small business owners across the country, who are set for some precarious times ahead.

These business owners are referred to in Brazil as “microentrepreneurs,” in relation to a special government tax regime allowing individual firms with annual revenue of under...