That's a good article. I don't think the American public will stand to be quarantined for too long. People have families to feed and they aren't working. I'm not opposed to the government helping people for a short term, but very opposed to long term government handouts. Eventually, the economy has to resume and people need to get back to life. We can't live under the fear of this <<insert whatever - virus, terrorism, etc.>> forever.
That's a terrible article. With respect, I don't think you or he have completely grasped the scale of what happens if we listen to the Grand Poobah and everyone just goes back to work. Are you paying attention to the numbers? Are you going to the sources and attempting to understand what we're facing? Or are you just basing your opinion off the soundbytes of an amateur politician and some ****ing weaboo wealth manager?
Very simply, without social isolation, one person with this virus will spread it to approximately 2.5 others over the course of their own infection (weeks, generally). Without social isolation, pretty much
everybody gets the virus, and all within a couple months. Approximately 5% of those with the virus will require serious medical intervention. 5% of everybody (plus or minus) inside the span of six months
completely overwhelms our medical system. We're not talking long lines to see the Dr. here. We're talking about people's parents and grandparents left in the hallways and parking lots of hospitals to die because we don't have the time or equipment to treat them. We're talking people's children dying of things unrelated to the virus because there's not enough medical professionals to go around. We're talking bodies in piles because our crematoriums can't keep up. If you think I'm being dramatic, think again. This is what happened in China because they didn't react soon enough. This is happening in Italy
right now because they didn't take this thing seriously enough early enough. This will happen here unless we react
now. I'm not going to take the time to cite all this, these numbers are all available in links already posted in this thread. If if you think I'm exaggerating, take the time to go look at them yourself.
You're right though, I agree with you. We can't sit under lockdown forever. Cash payouts alone won't fix this thing. We don't have all have 40 acres and a cow, our interconnected society must be allowed to produce and consume and buy and sell. And it sucks to be scared, I get that. I'm scared too, I don't like being uncertain of my family's future and I don't like the idea of anyone, let alone me, being dependent on government handouts either. But we absolutely cannot consign the entire United States to the sort of misery other countries are going through right now because some of us are too proud to eat government cheese or stay the hell home. I paid my damned taxes to this government and it can damned well do it's job now and use some of that tax money to help us through a very trying situation. We can damned well sit under pseudo-lockdown for at least a couple more weeks until we know the exact effect of our current actions, and then we can make decisions going forward based on sound science and measured analysis, not emotional reactions to the blatherings of a giant Cheeto trying to save his rich cronies' stock portfolios.
This thing sucks, I get it. In the long run, I expect we're going to find that a balance must be struck between functioning economy and people not dying needlessly, but we don't know what that balance looks like yet. To suggest that we abandon our current efforts at slowing this thing down before we even know how effective they were strikes me as amazingly short sighted. The asshole that wrote that article asks "How much economic value are we willing to lose to save a human life?" My answer is
all of it, if that's what it takes, but I don't think that's what it will take. We're a fantastically rich country. I think we have the resources to get through this without resorting to draconian social darwinism bullshit, and I don't think we need to listen to the bleatings of a bunch of rich Wall Street assholes who are suggesting that we kick grandma and grandpa off the boat so that they don't have to become slightly less rich. Let's save the "back to work" calls until we have actual hard data about the effect we're currently having on the virus and the economy, can we do that?
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