Rethinking the Coronavirus Shutdown
No society can safeguard public health for long at the cost of its economic health.
By The Editorial Board, Updated March 19, 2020 7:40 pm ET

https://www.wsj.com/articles/rethinking-the-coronavirus-shutdown-11584659154

Financial markets paused their slide Thursday, but no one should think this rolling economic calamity is over. If this government-ordered shutdown continues for much more than another week or two, the human cost of job losses and bankruptcies will exceed what most Americans imagine. This won’t be popular to read in some quarters, but federal and state officials need to start adjusting their anti-virus strategy now to avoid an economic recession that will dwarf the harm from 2008-2009.

The vast social-distancing project of the last 10 days or so has been necessary and has done much good. Warnings about large gatherings of more than 10 people and limiting access to nursing homes will save lives. The public has received a crucial education in hygiene and disease prevention, and even young people may get the message. With any luck, this behavior change will reduce the coronavirus spread enough that our hospitals won’t be overwhelmed with patients. Anthony Fauci, Scott Gottlieb and other disease experts are buying crucial time for government and private industry to marshal resources against the virus.

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Yet the costs of this national shutdown are growing by the hour, and we don’t mean federal spending. We mean a tsunami of economic destruction that will cause tens of millions to lose their jobs as commerce and production simply cease. Many large companies can withstand a few weeks without revenue but that isn’t true of millions of small and mid-sized firms.


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But no society can safeguard public health for long at the cost of its overall economic health. Even America’s resources to fight a viral plague aren’t limitless—and they will become more limited by the day as individuals lose jobs, businesses close, and American prosperity gives way to poverty. America urgently needs a pandemic strategy that is more economically and socially sustainable than the current national lockdown.


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Very good to seem them emerging....

Quote: austingirl wrote in post #4

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Where are the libertarians? Have I missed their voices?

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Jesse Kelly @JesseKellyDC
Let me tell you a little story about 91 men and women in my area. 91 people with bills, families, and all the things you have:

Just hung up the phone with my buddy who owns a company. It’s a retail company selling fairly expensive things most of you own...
2:02 PM · Mar 20, 2020·

Jesse Kelly @JesseKellyDC
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2h
Now understand this. His company is one of those budding superstar companies. The kind opening new locations. The kind that could go public and put my buddy on a yacht the rest of his life...

Jesse Kelly @JesseKellyDC
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2h
Of course, it helped that my buddy’s dad was a BIG shot oil executive for years and helped him structure everything about the thing when he started it about a decade ago...

Jesse Kelly @JesseKellyDC
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2h
They are in ROCK solid financial shape (thanks for the wisdom, Dad). Better than 95% of American companies. 40% of business investment income in cash, not over leveraged, etc.. I mean rock solid books...

Jesse Kelly @JesseKellyDC
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2h
Guess how long he has until they close at this current rate of business.

One month. One month. Businesses, no matter how solid, CANNOT drop to zero revenue. They cannot. Business expenses are just too much. They’ll crush you...

Jesse Kelly @JesseKellyDC
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2h
So back to those 91 employees. Those are all his. Their clock started ticking a few days ago. (And many employees across America already had their clock run out.)

91 families about to be destitute if we don’t open America again. And that’s from a solid company.

Jesse Kelly @JesseKellyDC
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2h
Politicians,

Open this country up again. And soon. If someone tells you locking everyone inside is the only way, fire them and find someone else. Not a recession, but a Great Depression is coming. And it’s coming fast.

That’s all.

Quote: austingirl wrote in post #7

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Here is the email I sent to Governor Abbott:

I am shocked and disappointed by the draconian and senseless restrictions you have placed on the freedoms of Texas citizens. The State of Texas has made it plain that you don't trust your citizens to gauge their own health risk and take mitigating actions on an individual basis.

The destruction of wealth, the job loss, and the economic devastation you are bringing down on our state is appalling and probably something we can't recover from.

You ordered my gym closed. The Center for Fitness in Kerrville is a small, private gym that has operated for decades and serves the local population. Due to your edict, I will be unable to swim for at least two weeks and my health will be negatively affected. There is absolutely no risk in allowing this family-owned business to continue operation. From a Wall Street Journal: "But no society can safeguard public health for long at the cost of its overall economic health. Even America’s resources to fight a viral plague aren’t limitless—and they will become more limited by the day as individuals lose jobs, businesses close, and American prosperity gives way to poverty. America urgently needs a pandemic strategy that is more economically and socially sustainable than the current national lockdown."

From Powerline: "The economic devastation that is now playing out before our eyes is not caused by the Wuhan flu virus. In the last 21 days, approximately 162,000 Americans have died. Of that number, 150 were killed by the Wuhan virus. If governments at all levels had done nothing, other than eliminating regulatory barriers to the deployment of already-existing medicines, would the virus have killed more Americans? Yes, that is what flu bugs do. Would it kill more than the 13,000 or so who have died from this year’s seasonal flu virus? Who knows? More than the estimated 80,000 who were killed by the flu in the U.S. just two years ago? I doubt it: world-wide, it has killed only a little more than one-tenth that number."

You have sent Texas down to road to serfdom, a collapsing economy, and totalitarian rule. You have taken away our Constitutional Rights in one fell swoop.

People get sick and die, tens of thousands of complications of the flu each year, and this virus is spread in the same way. Those will health risks should take precautions and self-isolate if they choose. Let the rest of us have the freedom of assembly and choose to live our best lives.

I am a registered nurse and have experience in infection control. You are listening to the wrong people.

Please rethink the egregious and unnecessary abrogation of our rights.

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That is excellent @austingirl!

Lots of quotes coming to mind of late....


"If ye love wealth better than liberty,
the tranquility of servitude
better than the animating contest of freedom,
go home from us in peace.

We ask not your counsels or your arms.
Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you.
May your chains set lightly upon you,
and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen."

-- Samuel Adams, August 1, 1776


things that we should keep in mind...