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

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1cthlctrth

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Do you have any idea how easy it is for me to say, “But if this economic shutdown saves just one life!”
According to the worst predictions, 99 out of 100 of us will survive.
But there is another story… The one about an unstoppable financial meteor that’s about to hit 99.99 percent of our country.
The government shut down Margaret’s company.
Margaret can’t pay her invoices to Jimmy’s company.
Jimmy’s company can’t pay Jimmy.
Jimmy can’t pay his landlord.
Jimmy’s landlord can’t pay his mortgage.
Jimmy and his landlord are now sitting at home totally helpless as they watch their bank accounts and 401Ks melt away along with the supplies necessary to feed their wife and children.
And ’round and ’round we go.

So please allow me to put this starkly as I can…
No, the government is not asking us to just sit at home and watch Netflix.
What the government is really doing is this…
Asking us to sit at home as our bank accounts dwindle, as our small businesses barrel towards bankruptcy, as the company that employs us teeters on the edge of closing down.
And sitting at home helpless as everything falls apart is agonizing… Is a recipe for despair… And despair means stress, and stress is — for the those of you who thump your chest over your fidelity to science — a killer.
The privileged media living through their exciting disaster movie don’t want to talk about the economic death toll of shutting down the economy — suicide; drug overdoses; crime; murders driven by despair, desperation, and fear; spousal abuse.
During the first four years of the Great Depression, the suicide rate jumped by almost 25 percent.

I’m not saying I know the answer to the dilemma between the coronavirus meteor and the economic meteor. But I am at least willing to acknowledge the latter exists, and to not sanctimoniously scream YOU DON’T CARE ABOUT DEAD PEOPLE to those who dare to discuss that other disaster movie.
 
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I think we’re going to see that this was all way overblown precisely for the purposes of instituting more social controls, making the average person a neurotic germophobe, and changing workers’ demeanor from one of what slight dignity we had left to a groverling, scraping wretch who will tolerate anything for a few scraps from our rulers’ table.
 
Brian_K said:
way overblown precisely for the purposes of instituting more social controls
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Help me understand this. Who is doing the “overblowing”, media or government? Who can “institute more social controls”, media or government? Or are you saying the media is under government control? Or maybe the government is in the media’s pocket? Unless I am missing something big (always a possibility), then it doesn’t make sense.
 
1cthlctrth said:
But I am at least willing to acknowledge the latter exists, and to not sanctimoniously scream YOU DON’T CARE ABOUT DEAD PEOPLE to those who dare to discuss that other disaster movie.
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I don’t think anyone is claiming that there will be no economic impact to this; I have seen many stories and articles about how badly many people are being affected. I think the issue is a matter of what is the higher priority at the moment. How well will the economy recover when it is over if a significantly higher number of people die because we stopped the isolation too soon? How will Margaret’s company rebuild if she can’t get her workers back because too many of them are too sick or died? What the government is asking you to do is stay out of the line of fire so you don’t add to the workload of the doctors and nurses who are at the breaking point already.
 
The government and media are essentially the same entity. I believe this is being mined by the powers that be for all it’s worth just like Pearl Harbor, the USS Liberty attack, 9/11, etc. Are these events planned by our rulers? I don’t think so. But I think it’s obvious to one who is willing the learn the truth, even if it’s uncomfortable, that these events are manipulated to sinister ends.

I make my statement now to put a time and date stamp on it and reflect on it’s accuracy in coming weeks, months and years. If I’m wrong, then I’m wrong. But this pattern of crisis-hysteria-overreaction looks to me to be right out of the same playbook as previous events.

That said, I will continue to do my part and follow the protocols that are required of us. We are, after all, required to render unto Caesar.
 
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Brian_K said:
The government and media are essentially the same entity.
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So you think that D. Trump is being cleverly disingenuous when he talks about “fake news” and claims reporters are incompetent? In order to fool us into thinking that they are actually at odds in most ways, when one actually is calling the shots for all?

Words fail me.
Brian_K said:
obvious to one who is willing the learn the truth
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And there it is. The less said at this point the better.
 
Speaking only for the USA: Most people are still working, still being paid. If they have been laid off or furloughed, there are programs available that allow people to keep paying their bills and buying food.

Stores are getting shipments every day, as well as local farmers selling direct to consumer.

AFIK, about half of American workers have a 401K or similar retirement savings fund. We have taken big hits when the market is down before, there is no reason to think that there will not be a rebound again.

I’ve went upper middle class and one day from homeless in the same year, the crash of 2008. Lost house on the lakeside golf course, boat, cars, even my pets. We survived.

I’ve had the worst thing happen, I lost my husband when he was only 54 years old. I survived. After those two things, I gave up despair because it is worthless.

Consider the lilies of the field.

Despair is not what we are called to. We are Christians. We are light and salt, we broadcast hope, we know God is in control.
 
Good points.
Sorry to hear about your losses, but pleased to hear that you have a good attitude about it.
Part of my point is that as more businesses close, we could be heading to an area worse than the Great Depression if states are “closed” for too long. 90% of America is currently under some sort of “stay home” order, and more than 10 million people have filed for unemployment in the last 2 weeks. And why are rural areas with no coronavirus problem “shut down”?
If the government just prints money and gives it away, our fixed incomes, like pension, social security, and our 401k will be worth only a fraction of what it is worth now. More people will then live in poverty.
An apples-to-oranges comparison (but a good point nonetheless, I think), is that we don’t ban the use of cars despite the tens of thousands of automobile deaths per year.
Too many journalists (both leftists AND conservatives) are treating this like a football game, with coronavirus counts in each state, graphs and charts, etc., and not considering all factors involved here. Some journalists even suggest shutting supermarkets down, too. Some even suggest shutting the entire country down.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a great solution, but I do think that tunnel vision would not be a good thing.
 
whatistrue said:
Trump is being cleverly disingenuous when he talks about “fake news”
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To Trump any report he does not generate is “fake news”, just as in New Testament times the only one who could report a “gospel” was Caesar, the emporer.
Christians were breaking the law to call their “King” (Jesus) by the title of “Lord” (only could be said of Caesar) and breaking the law by calling the reports of Jesus life as “Gospel” (Official Victory Report")

Trump requires only his reports of reality be listened to and that each of you purge your hearing of non-Trump obeying news services and shout “Fake News” when you hear them

He is, as he proclaimed as he looked to the sky, “The Chosen One” for his followers.
 
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Any more of that kind of talk, Winston, and it’s off to Room 101 with you till you can see that 2 + 2 = 5! 😁
 
It does seem to me that an overwhelming majority of those advocating the
“…Stop Covid At All Costs” “…No price is too high”
are all on the public payroll.
 
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Lion_IRC said:
It does seem to me that an overwhelming majority of those advocating the
“…Stop Covid At All Costs” “…No price is too high”
are all on the public payroll.
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And on the other side are the wealthy who require that the public work (suffering danger from covid) to ensure a payroll of profits while these wealthy enjoy maximum medical luxury.
 
First I question the source or your article. Not my idea of valid. Beyond that here is my response.

Margaret should be operating her business with enough liquidity to pay Jimmy’s invoice. Good business practice. If she isn’t, the gov. shutdown of her business isn’t necessarily why she can’t pay. If she has good credit she can go borrow funds to get her through.

Jimmy should have savings of his own enough to cover his rent, he can file for unemployment during this period or his employer can do like many are and apply for PPP to keep Jimmy paid.

Jimmy’s landlord should not be operating his rental property without a cushion to cover the periods of time the unit isn’t rented. In the rental property business one should build into the cash flow for time when units are either vacant or delinquent on the payment.

401k’s will go back up, just as the have since 2008. We have had tremendous growth in them over the past decade. If you aren’t at retirement age, there is time to make it back. If you are at retirement age, you should have taken steps to ensure you were not in volatile investments that take hits during economic downturns. Bad investing strategy.

When this is all over, I will let you know how many of my business customers file bankruptcy, and if they were destine for it before all this started anyway.

The privileged media, privileged politicians, privileged whomever are going to be ok.

If you don’t hear the media talking about economic death toll of shutting down the economy you must not be listening to media that makes sense. It is all over the place.

You know any of the greatest generation Americans? My parents were two of them. They lived very frugally. If we didn’t need it, we didn’t really get it. They saved, they planned for the future. They knew how to budget and stayed within their budget.

Sad part about all this is that I really don’t think that Americans will learn anything from this, no matter how bad it turns out to be.
 
Yes, 1cthlctrth, I think you are right. IMHO, this has been overblown in the USA. How many people died of influenza or ebola or of other diseases and they did not shut down the whole USA ? There are ways to be safe without shutting down the whole country and risking economic disaster. Further many of those who have died already had some serious underlying condition. It has often been that way with the flu and related diseases. Yes, 50 deaths per one million population for the USA is high, but is it really that much different from past cases of death from the flu virus?
 
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I totally see your point. I am wondering if social distancing to slow the spread is really more beneficial for most people. I think more people may end up suffering from am economic collapse and financial difficulty than would if coronabirus just spread without anything stopping it
 
Not to derail the thread but simply replace virus with abortion and reread your statement. 🤑

Is avoiding financial suffering ever a good compromise to death?
 
AlNg said:
Further many of those who have died already had some serious underlying condition. It has often been that way with the flu and related diseases.
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People who die of a heart attack with covid are being counted as a covid death not a heart attack death. This is a complete break from any other statistic. Prior to covid if you got a cold and died from an underlying immunological disorder call death would be recorded as the disorder and not the cold.
 
Coronavirus is a tremendously serious problem that must be dealt with. I agree with many new policies, like social distancing, cleanliness, and even temporary partial shutdowns of problem areas like New York City.
But, again, we don’t even consider banning automobile use, despite 40,000 deaths per year. Life expectancy and mental health increases, and poverty decreases with the advantages we have the past couple centuries.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...-in-u-s-exceed-40-000-for-third-straight-year
 
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