Who's Going to Pay the Bills?: Purpose-Driven Coronavirus Business Shutdowns Cause Economic Catastrophe

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Yes. But I’d have to locate those for you as well. I honestly don’t have time to document all the information, but there have been mayors and governors who have said this.
 
For those of you wondering what grocery shopping will be like when your community gets hit by this disease: armed police in every grocery store. Think about why that is.
 
Dr_Meinheimer said:
If you want truly share the pain so that we are all truly all “in this together”, mandate the loss of all jobs (rather than cherry picking whose life is more important), freeze everyone’s bank accounts, or forbid all people from leaving home for any reason. I suspect we find a better to solution to widespread stay-at-home orders if suddenly, those promoting them didn’t have a means to eat either. This situation is a perfect case of deciding who is more important than whom, though we just don’t say it in those terms.
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Yes. It isn’t automatically better to be willing to take on greater sacrifices for the sake of public health, let alone to lay those sacrifices onto the backs of others, without taking the trouble to see if the sacrifices are justified because there isn’t a less onerous way to accomplish the same end.

A response to a pandemic caused by a novel agent is guesswork by its nature, but re-visiting the efficacy of restrictions is also an obligation on those who have the duty and authority to decide what restrictions are to be imposed in and effort to serve the public good. I haven’t heard every governor speak, but most seem to be taking that responsibility very seriously, even if they are not all reaching the same conclusions for the best course in each of their jurisdictions.
 
Every governor has seemed earnest and sincere, with different approaches. Fairly or not, history will judge them against the results to both the health of their states citizens and the financial impact to those same people. IMO, it is pretty much a lose-lose situation for any executive, federal or state. It is inevitable people will die, and even the best leaders will be chided for not doing enough, especially in place where restrictions were not as tight. If casualties are less than expected, they will be chided for overkill. People’s financial lives all already destroyed, and there are those that will say it was overkill economically for low such a mild medical result.
 
Dr_Meinheimer said:
Every governor has seemed earnest and sincere, with different approaches. Fairly or not, history will judge them against the results to both the health of their states citizens and the financial impact to those same people. IMO, it is pretty much a lose-lose situation for any executive, federal or state. It is inevitable people will die, and even the best leaders will be chided for not doing enough, especially in place where restrictions were not as tight. If casualties are less than expected, they will be chided for overkill. People’s financial lives all already destroyed, and there are those that will say it was overkill economically for low such a mild medical result.
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I was so surprised to have learned how serious the 1918 outbreak was, in light of how little I heard about it when studying US history. I hope that this crisis at least gives us the will to make decisions in advance for how to prepare for and handle the next one.

I am extremely concerned about rural areas. Many started restrictions due to outbreaks in urban areas in their state, but may suffer from their worst outbreaks much later. I hope not, but the protests I am seeing gives me cause for concern.

I wasn’t there for it, but the one in our state looked quite reasonable, because almost everybody seems to have stayed in their vehicles. In other states, however, the number of people in close quarters during their protests was worrisome, too. I hope that being outside where the wind can disperse virus droplets relatively quickly will have made those gatherings far safer than they appeared they might have been. I would not wish a COVID-19 outbreak on my worst enemy. Those who survive a serious case say it feels essentially like drowning for a week or more, day after day of some of the most labored breathing they have ever endured.
 
1cthlctrth said:
More lives ruined from the COVID-19-related business shutdowns:

Jobless claims: Another 5.245 million Americans file for unemployment benefits in the week-ending April 11.
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Filing for unemployment is not the same as ruining one’s life. Most of these job losses are temporary.
 
I believe you seriously underestimate the Goliath that is presenting itself. You make it seem like losing one’s job is no big deal and the economy is going to pop back and we will all be celebrating. You know, as long as no one dies, the 27 million people out of work, the trillions of dollars of economic damage and the food supply reduction as major plants close down, are not surface scars, these will be impacting our global economy and people’s lives in ways you aren’t considering. Again, we best not make the cure worse than the disease and if we do not get back to work soon, we will tilt and it will be worse. We are running out of time.
 
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JoeFreedom said:
I believe you seriously underestimate the Goliath that is presenting itself. You make it seem like losing one’s job is no big deal and the economy is going to pop back and we will all be celebrating. You know, as long as no one dies, the 27 million people out of work, the trillions of dollars of economic damage and the food supply reduction as major plants close down, are not surface scars, these will be impacting our global economy and people’s lives in ways you aren’t considering. Again, we best not make the cure worse than the disease and if we do not get back to work soon, we will tilt and it will be worse. We are running out of time.
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When it comes to making these estimations and projections, I trust the CDC and the governor of our state. With all the knowledge and resources, they have a much better handle on the magnitude of people’s problems than random posters on the internet.
 
Well we can agree to disagree. I do NOT trust the CDC to make recommendations about when we should restart our economy and most governors I do NOT trust either. Especially in my state. He’s an idiot.
 
JoeFreedom said:
Well we can agree to disagree. I do NOT trust the CDC to make recommendations about when we should restart our economy and most governors I do NOT trust either. Especially in my state. He’s an idiot.
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Then at least half the citizens of your state are idiots too, since they elected him.
 
The truth is that no one knows for sure what this virus is capable of doing, how it may or may not explode before we-hopefully-are able to gain some kind of control over it. And the government is providing funds to small businesses, and working on more funding now, for the express purpose of using those funds to keep those business (such as my own) going meanwhile, even if that means just keeping employees doing “busy’work”, or even being paid to stay home rather than the alternatives, going on unemployment or going broke. In this way they hope to keep the economy from failing altogether. But we’re staring at a big unknown timewise- as to how long such aid will be necessary, and how much, if any, might be enough.

Right now the government must be very serious about instituting these programs quickly-because businesses must make decisions moment by moment, day by day as to whether or not to continue to supplement payroll without receiving revenue in return. And every day that goes by means more employees making the decision to reduce pay or lay off people altogether-and those actions will make it very hard to recover later on.
 
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Or stayed home and let him get elected. I’m now suspicious that Mr. Freedom and I may live in the same state. The hand’s been dealt and we’ve got to play it.
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Another challenge is the growth of an underground economy. This won’t be taxed and it’s existence as an alternative undermines the ability of government to fill its coffers and fund programs.
 
Who do you trust?

You don’t trust the people who do this stuff for a living, and are either appointed or elected by the people in their state.

The economy will recover. People will go back to work. Will some have long term effects, yes. But some had long term effects from the recession in the late 2000’s.

There has been and will continue to be some sort of balance. The approach being taken is allowing some to get sick and some economic hardship. Do you think that the meat producers should just keep spitting out product until their entire workforce is infected? You can’t just pull a meat processor out of the thin air, there is a learning curve.

I have said it previously and will state it again. Much of the pain people are feeling is due to lack of planning on their part previously. Many chose not to save sufficiently. Many purchased items that allowed them not to save properly.

If people don’t like be subject to being sent home from their jobs, there is a solution. Be self employed. If people don’t like not having supplies at the store, there is a solution, grow or raise your own.

When one complains about being hurt by others causing you not live your life the way you are accustom to, well the answer is not be so reliant on others.
 
farronwolf said:
Who do you trust?
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I do not trust the health care sector to make decisions on the economy. If it were up to the CDC, they would shut us down completely until there was a vaccine.
farronwolf said:
I have said it previously and will state it again. Much of the pain people are feeling is due to lack of planning on their part previously. Many chose not to save sufficiently. Many purchased items that allowed them not to save properly.
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And I will agree with you. I posted in another thread about how “living within one’s means” is a dead concept (and that includes saving and preparing). I’d also extend that to many of the states as well, as they did not prepare for a pandemic after being warned for decades.

In late February, NY state governor Cuomo is on record as saying how prepared his state was. And then blam. Help! Help! We are not prepared.
farronwolf said:
If people don’t like be subject to being sent home from their jobs, there is a solution. Be self employed. If people don’t like not having supplies at the store, there is a solution, grow or raise your own.
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I hope you are joking. Just start your own business. Sure that’s realistic. Oh and grow all your own food and raise some cows and chickens.
 
1cthlctrth said:
More lives ruined from the COVID-19-related business shutdowns:

Jobless claims: Another 5.245 million Americans file for unemployment benefits in the week-ending April 11.

Jobless claims: Another 5.245 million Americans file for unemployment benefits
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We’re on a Catholic web site saying that if you lose your job or business or go through a terrible instance of real suffering that your life is ruined? No. We can’t be implying that despair is a reasonable response to a disaster, even a very devastating disaster. That is not what our Faith teaches.
 
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