The Shut Down: There's A Human Cost Conveniently Overlooked

If the government thinks this shutdown to prevent the spread is going to work (and they're slowly extending it), they just may well spark a self-induced economic disaster that will prove to be a bigger problem than the virus itself. Yes, the virus is weird and needs to be addressed but we must be careful about adding to the problem.

People who think this will 'all work itself out' are right.

But a massive cost they mostly won't feel.

I've observed the people pushing for 'this is necessary' aren't 'doing their share' of paying the price.

At the moment, the ones taking the hit are small business owners, their employees and workers in 'non-essential' services.

That's a lot of people going through government mandated orders.

A good size of the work force can work from home at full pay or salary. They're actually in the best position of all.

And this is where friendships can get strained. I have a friend who maintains his six figure salary while being sufficiently tone deaf as to tell me 'it's ok, you'll be fine.'

When I hear this 'You selfish person. Why can't you be like me and care? We have to save every single life!' or as he told me, 'you're obsessed with the economy. This is about mankind!'

The economy IS mankind.

Which is why I take the stance that we have to start caring for EVERY citizen. It makes no sense to make one demographic pay the price to protect another when all we need to do is isolate the most vulnerable demographic while at the same time being diligent by keeping a safe distance, washing hands and perhaps even wearing masks without closing down the economy.

I'm keeping a social distance these days but from people who say things I don't appreciate.

The utter lack of concern on this front bothers me.

Another friend of mine isn't sure he'll have a business to go back to because he doesn't know if the suppliers will survive. When I relayed this to a friend he said, 'I don't worry for him. He has money.'

Talk about missing the point.

No one likes to lose their business. In this case, one that took 35 years to build. One that employs 35 high skilled workers probably at an avg. salary of $80 000.

Your livelihood is a sacrifice we're willing to take!

If people who are supporting this shut down would take their asses out of their heads for a second, they'd see if you expand this across the CONTINENT, you have a major economic malaise on your hands because you've stopped the key element of our system: WEALTH CREATION.

When you stop creation while combining it with tax fuelled bail outs EVERYONE will lose.

Very disappointing response.

And apparently I'm the one who doesn't care.

Shutting down 'thinks' it's helping everyone but it's not. It's destroying a good chunk of people. It's a double-whammy because we just don't know what the cost-benefit/risk-reward trade-offs are.

So far 10 million out of work in North America. Already a number too high.

We're talking Depression era unemployment when all is said and done.

Troubling stuff, especially considering South Korea managed without going this route and Sweden doing the same.

*****

Don't under estimate using this pandemic to pad their CVs.

*****

Quote of the day:

Asked about that, a visibly annoyed Lightfoot said, “I’m the public face of this city. I’m on national media and I’m out in the public eye.

“I’m a person who, I take my personal hygiene very seriously. As I said, I felt like I needed to have a haircut,” Lightfoot said. “I’m not able to do that myself, so I got a haircut. You want to talk more about that?”

Chicago Mayor. 

Some are more equal than others.

Condescending, tone deaf, arrogant twat.