Them that still has a job and get a paycheck…and them that don’t. Might behoove those in column A to pretend they have a wee mite of empathy and concern for the column B folks who are rightly worried about their ability to feed their newly-strugging families and keep a roof over their heads, I’m thinking.
In a turn of events that should surprise no one, thousands of people across the country have taken to the streets to protest the draconian lockdown measures that have destroyed the economy and millions of lives along with it. Many in the media seem to be perplexed about this development. They are doing quite well, personally — still pulling an income, still able to do cable news hits from their home studios — and they can’t imagine why anyone would be so upset about being asked to stay home and watch Netflix and play video games, as Patton Oswalt put it in a tweet that has half a million likes.
But those who lack the privilege of a media personality or famous comedian may find that Netflix and video games are paltry comfort when they return home after spending six hours in line at a food bank. Agree or disagree with the methods of the protestors, but any reasonable and decent person should at least understand why they are protesting. In the past month, 22 million people have lost their jobs. Plus another several million who didn’t qualify for unemployment or couldn’t apply because the unemployment sites are crashing. Contrary to how Dr. Fauci has characterized it, these numbers represent more than a mere “inconvenience.” Many Americans have lost everything. And not because of some natural disaster or act of God, but because the government has forbid them from going to work.
Illegally and unconstitutional forbidden them to go to work. Let’s not leave that part out. As time goes on, state governors continue their wanton destruction of the economy and impoverishment of tens of millions, the rebellion escalates, and it becomes time to get the torches alight and the tar a-boiling, it will begin to matter.
A woman at a protest in Maryland held a cardboard sign saying she wanted to save her business. “I need to work to live,” the sign read. Democrat politicians would call that woman “selfish.” Talking heads on MSNBC would say she is part of a “death cult.” But it seems to me that she’s just a woman who wants to salvage the business that she has poured her sweat and tears into. And she wants to survive. Both of these seem like perfectly reasonable goals. Disagree with her approach if you want — though, honestly, I can’t see the problem with the approach — but to sneer at her and the other protestors, as so many in the media have done, is morally repugnant.
I would like to propose an unofficial rule for any further discussion of these protests and the lockdowns that prompted them. Before you give your opinion, you should first reveal whether you still have an income. The rest of us would like to know if you are earning an income while you smear your fellow Americans for wanting to earn an income. Indeed, it’s rather striking that the loudest voices in favor of the shutdown are primarily people who have lost nothing because of it. It is bad enough for those who’ve lost nothing to wag their fingers at those who’ve lost everything, but to call them selfish? Well, that level of hypocrisy is just too much to bear.
It is indeed. And there’s no good reason for the people who are toting quite a load already, with little to no real justification, to do so. More from Insty:
It’s no surprise that a major center of resistance to the shutdown has emerged in Michigan, whose Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has shown all the sensitivity of an angry third-grade teacher in administering a shutdown regime that often makes no sense — banning sales of seeds in stores that are open for other purposes, or allowing sailboating but banning powerboating. Her response to the protests, a threat to extend shutdowns further, seems calculated to inflame things further.
People don’t appreciate being lectured and condescended to and bossed around. They especially don’t appreciate being urged to sacrifice by people who make no sacrifices themselves. And that’s a different sort of class divide: When rulers ask for sacrifices without making any, they’re displaying a distinct lack of, well, class.
Sadly, to succeed in their job, our leaders will need to possess humility, empathy and self-discipline. Those traits are in sadly short supply in our leadership class. We will all pay a price for that, though if recent history is any guide, our leaders will pay less than the rest of us.
Yep. But the price our “leaders” and “elites” must pay can rise with shocking rapidity, and if they continue blindly along their present path, they’ll find that the pain of settling accounts might not be limited to the merely allegorical.
Update! We must all pray that Robert Zimmerman is wrong. But deep in our hearts, we know he’s right.
I don’t want to mince any words here. This Great Wuhan Depression was ordered by the governors of our fifty states. It is their economic collapse, through and through. They knew that if they shut down everything for a month or more the economy would collapse, and yet they did it anyway. And sadly, President Trump aided them in this effort by publicly activating the National Guard when requested by them in order to enforce these lock down edicts.
Moreover, I fear that this economic crash will be exacerbated by the accompanying loss of freedom. You can’t turn an economy around on a dime, but if freedom is allowed you raise the odds that things can recover faster.
Sadly, the government edicts, many of which literally nullified the Bill of Rights, have set a precedent that is very hostile to freedom, and one that our governments now appear to be following with enthusiasm. The so-called “plans” being announced by various state governments, many following federal guidelines developed by the Trump administration, all dictate which businesses can operate, when businesses shall reopen, and how people will behave. The idea of letting freedom do the job seems quite quaint to our modern rulers. They would much rather rule as dictators, setting the rules without referring to law or legislation.
Meanwhile, the facts on the ground continue to suggest that the Wuhan flu is not the deadly plague that many politicians and health experts have claimed. With the rate of new cases apparently peaking, we can now make a reasonable prediction of how many the virus will eventually kill (recognizing that for many political reasons some of these numbers have been padded), and find that the numbers will likely end up comparable to a high flu season, and far less than many other causes of death that we routinely take for granted. In addition, there is clear evidence that the lock downs were unnecessary and that our health system was not going to be overrun. In fact, though the data remains incomplete at this moment, the overall mortality rate is actually low this year, when compared to recent years.
Thus, this virus did not warrant the panic that ensued, the destruction of the economy, and the nullification of the Bill of Rights. But yet that is exactly what our elected officials have done, destroyed the economy and nullified our freedoms.
Unless we as citizens take action to oppose this, our country will never be the same, and millions more will suffer as the economy continues its crash, hindered from recovering because we are now no different than socialist Venezuela or communist Russia.
This country will assuredy NOT ever be the same—not least because of how very far down the road to true socialism we had already come before this latest state-mandated, panic-inspired lurch to the extreme Left was perpetrated.
So far not much has affected me economically, fingers crossed. Still I protest these gross unconstitutional overreaches (most State Constitutions have protection of Unalienable Rights conceptually in them, especially in any of the original 13 Colonies). Calling a non-Emergency an Emergency just to Grab for unheard of Power is EXACTLY, as Mike put it, a Reichstag Fire Moment.
Lest I seem to be trying to come off as some Noble Saint here, let me tell the Selfish side of the stance I am taking.
The first wave of economic dislocation has not hurt me yet, but the second probably will, and the third almost certainly will. We’ll get there too if we don’t start opening up and see some Demand Side push upwards on the price of oil to indicate the Economy is starting to hum again.
When one person’s income is cut, they invariably have to cut their spending, which is another person’s Income cut. That takes a while to ripple through an Economic System as big, complex and chaotic as ours is now, but it gets there eventually.
“That takes a while to ripple through an Economic System as big, complex and chaotic as ours is now, but it gets there eventually.”
It’s coming even if the states start opening up. All we can hope for is the wave is smaller and shorter than a normal economic decline causes. OTOH, with the unprecedented shutting down of the economy, who knows.
As I said in another place, 20K rental houses in Dare county NC that have summer occupancy rates that are pretty darn high. No one is renting now. Multiply 20K x 50k and you get a billion. I don’t know what the average rental or loss will be, probably not 50K on average, but 25k is 500 million.
The county gets a 10% occupancy tax. Not going to get it this year. Those houses are all serviced, homes cleaned between rentals, polls and hot tubs serviced between rentals, etc. Restaurants already slammed with no customers have no customers, shops shuttered. It’s a disaster, and it’s all up and down the coast or any other resort area.
Multiply this problem times a million other economic problems, many far worse, and I’m not seeing anything short of a long slog.
Correction, the “10% occupancy tax” for dare county is 6% There is also a 6.75% sales tax.
I usually fill up with gas every 10 days with 3/4 a tank. I went 40 days and filled up a 1/2 tank. So in a period I usually use 3 full tanks I used 1/2 a tank. That’s about a 83% drop in Gas used.
Multiply that by millions of drivers and then add in all those trips from the interior to the cost and all those Gas Taxes for the State also fall tremendously.
PS Gas prices fell in that period from 2.45 to 1.89 so if taxes are a % of prices and not a flat amount then that’s a further 23% fall in collections.
Federal tax and most states are fixed per gallon. But when you purchase less, less tax is paid either way.
Gasoline is approaching or below the price of cheap bottled water…
All we can hope for is that some people decide to try a late holiday, get antsy in July and perhaps 4 weeks in August or 6 weeks perhaps with July is salvaged. Except the restaurants will have shuttered by then. At least the beach isn’t going anywhere.
I’m resigned to the fact that this year is a big loss. Nothing I can do about it. I’m not very hopeful that enough people will decide to vacation to make a difference and then there is another fact, the abundance of empty homes will drive the rental rates very low anyway.
The loss wouldn’t be so bad if the economy picks back up such that we don’t end up with a disaster. I go up and down on what the outcome is going to be, today it’s a disaster I see…
I don’t think people understand how much these losses are permanent, if only for a short time and not a lot unless aggregated.
Still, next year people won’t have pent up demand to rent your house twice at a time.
People won’t eat twice as much at a restaurant because they ate at home for two months.
It’s not like a car, where you may defer a purchase 6 months and then buy one.
Plus, there are those things people have been buying, like TP and canned soup, that they’ll let run down again if normalcy returns. So THAT demand will be lost.
Permanent losses, whether its someone cutting spending from losing a job, are losses of Capital. Of Wealth. Even if the person taking the Loss is compensated, the Loss is just shifted.
The odd point here is things such as lower oil prices, which should spark increased demand but aren’t because Demand is suppressed. So no one is actually benefitting from the price drops. It’s Demand Side destruction. Once Suppression of Demand is released, the price will rise quickly and Supply may not be able to ramp up as easily. Then we’ll actual have harm from HIGHER oil prices.
All these people on the Right think they understand Laffer and Supply Side Economics, but in a practical sense, they think it is LOWER PRICES Economics. It’s not. It’s making Incentives for people to Produce, ie ADD Supply and yet still profit by sparking Demand off the lower prices Productivity Gains bring.
“All these people on the Right think…”
LOL, I’ve determined most don’t. I recall someone telling me we’ll get it all back when demand goes back up. Of course you can’t get certain losses back, as you correctly point out.
And at this point, I would not hazard a guess as to how long it takes to get demand back. I just hope it’s a lot less than what I’m thinking.