One of the things I don’t do well is describe the effect of the economic shutdown on people. So, when I point out that people still have feed, cloth, and shelter themselves, and the economic shutdown is making that impossible, that fact does not seem to register to with some people. Do they really think the government can fix that problem just by printing money?
Check out Tricia’s post. Then think! If we cannot get rid of this virus — and we cannot — then we have to learn how to live with it.
“It was like a 98% drop in revenue overnight. All the bills keep coming in, it’s hard to pay those bills.”–John Rudolph, co-owner of Harry’s Coffee Shop and Diner.
“As of this afternoon, we’ve been forced to lay off our entire organization. Between all 5 locations that’s approximately 75 fantastic and very hard working people.”~Richard Walker, owner of Richard Walker’s Pancake House
“We are estimating that about 60% of all our restaurants have closed. You can imagine how many thousands and thousands of employees have been affected.”~Jeff Rossman, President of the local chapter of the California Restaurant Association.
The above 3 quotes are taken from a March 26th La Jolla Village News article profiling local restaurants in my area. Multiply them by 10 million and you get an idea of what the 30 million small business owners around the country are going through, not to…
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Citizen Tom 
“There is nothing altruistic about forcing people who are living paycheck to paycheck to stop working just so a bunch of retirees don’t get sick.”
I have two very large problems with this sentence. Firstly, it’s not about a bunch of retirees getting sick. It’s about thousands and possibly millions of people suffering and dying, of all ages.
Secondly, at no point in your grown up discussion about this do you consider how other countries are managing and even question how your country could and should be able to do what, for instance, Germany, New Zealand and Denmark are doing. Why are people living paycheck to paycheck abandoned by your ‘great’ country? Why does your ‘great’ country have an expensive healthcare system? Why can’t you actually support each other?
@violetwisp
Look at Table 2. Most of the dead are older folk.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/COVID19/index.htm
We have printed trillions of dollars to compensate people. That’s inflationary. Nobody — no country — has enough money to pay people not to work for months. It is a stupid idea.
The shutdown,l — because the virus probably escaped a Chinese research lab, and the Chinese were covering up — was justified for a short time. We had to figure out what we were dealing with. At this point, we have to let people go back to work and adapt whatever practices are necessary to protect the vulnerable.
I agree with you and Tricia. It’s only the old and people who are sick anyway who are affected by this. Your government should suggest masks and gloves and let people work like normal. That’ll work, and who cares if a few people die along the way or the hospitals get busy? Your god will protect the good people, like it says in the Bible. Here’s a list of a handful of American healthcare workers who are collateral damage in this, not a big deal to watch this grow either: https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/927976
Open up! Fight for your freedom to infect and be infected, it’s the smart thing to do. And don’t for one second think that as one of the richest countries in the world, your government could consider doing what other rich countries are doing – provide a living wage for people in a time of national emergency.
@violetwisp
It is a amazing how anything can be turned into an anti-Christian diatribe. Silly!
Nobody here said that COVID-19 is not serious. Have not blamed anyone for shutting down the economy. The point is that we cannot keep the economy shut down indefinitely. COVID-19 kills people but so does shutting down the economy, and that includes people in poor countries who depend upon trade with wealthier nations.
Whether Christian or not, mature adults discuss and weigh their options. Their object is an optimum solution, not to use angry words to bully their opponents into silence.
We have an expensive healthcare system. We have to have MONEY to pay for highly trained people and the equipment they use. We cannot just print money. We have fiat money. The only reason it is worth anything is that we have to have it to pay taxes. If we just print lots of money without producing more goods and services, fiat money loses its value. Inflation.
We also have to have economic activity because wthout economic activity there is nothing to buy. Then printing money becomes pointless.
Sorry WordPress changed your name to Array. I tried using that little feature represented with a bell to paste my reply from Notepad. Instead of the paste working properly, WordPress spammed your comment. Definitely a bug. Could be related to my laptop, but I have had similar headaches with my cellphone.
Hey Tom, I always appreciate a reblog from you, thank you. The country is now in full on recession mode and headed quickly towards a depression. I don’t think most people can even comprehend the suffering that will occur if this happens. I also think many (most?) people are not comprehending that shutting down the economy was never intended to reduce the amount of infections and deaths, only to spread out when they would happen so as not to overwhelm hospitals.
The politicians (our President included) have been absolutely irresponsible in not not explaining this and in not giving good information on the break down of the people getting most sick and/or dying. The numbers I’ve seen so far point to the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions, especially obesity, heart problems and diabetes.
We need to do our best to protect those people while implementing reasonable plans that allow most of us to get back to work and/or life while living with the coronoavirus threat. This will also speed up our reaching herd immunity which is good for ALL of us.
Another words we need to come back to Planet Reality!
@Tricia
I heard a pastor (http://christianoutlook.com/2020/04/01/premature-ending-quarantine-death-panels-john-hall-kathy-emmons-jerry-bowyer/) shaming folks for being unhappy about shutting the economy down. He did not know what he was talking about. Printing a bunch of money and spreading it around is not a good solution, but that is what we are doing.
There is nothing altruistic about forcing people who are living paycheck to paycheck to stop working just so a bunch of retirees don’t get sick. The trick is to protect the vulnerable and to keep the people who want to work working. Where is the generosity in that? We have to redesign our workplaces and work habits to avoid spreading the virus.