Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/04/22/why-reopening-the-economy.html
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Dead people don’t spend.
That seems to be something modern capitalism has forgotten.
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I certainly hope so. (But I am not completely convinced.)
Re: expensive stuff - I really wondered about that already. I have no idea what bankers would currently tell you to invest money in. Buying something which has value even during a pandemic, and afterwards? Like… a bike?
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Talking from a very, very cynical POV: someone will inherit the wealth (if it is still worth anything, that is).
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And if we start by investing seriously in households, then we’ll have a lot easier a time of helping the small businesses, for whom labor costs are their primary financial consideration.
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Ah, but if your employer isn’t closed by public health order, you can be fired for refusing to work. Or you can be fired when you get too sick to work and you don’t get sick leave. And you won’t qualify for unemployment if you are terminated for missing work. So your employer and the federal and state governments won’t be on the hook for those costs.
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Dead people also don’t produce goods to sell to the public.
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This is exactly it. Conservatives and their donors want to kick people off the dole to prevent states from hiking taxes once their unemployment coffers are depleted.
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Reopening the economy too early is as smart as starting the whole subprime mortgage fun again.
This is going to be a nation wide virus whack-a-mole until the vaccine, while other countries are making progress towards reopening safely.
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I’ve realized that the economy is like a lifelong abusive relationship. When the economy threatens to disappear people bend over backwards to get it to come back, even if it kills them, rather than be thankful it finally left, take some time to feel better, and then look for something else that isn’t always beating on them.
ETA all while their parents are telling them they can’t do better.
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May as well post this here, too:
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Places will “re-open”
Get maybe 10% of the customers they used to get because Yogi Berra was really Nostradamus:
“Nobody goes to that restaurant anymore because it’s too crowded.”
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Let’s also remember that the stock market began collapsing before even China was shutting things down, and well before there was a single confirmed case in the US.
The right wing save the economy not the people line started after the stock market situation erased a bunch of on paper wealth much as happened in 2008.
The panic set in when people realized it wasn’t the sort of loss that could be made up later, that the value had simply ceased to exist. So it seems less about shifting more money into their pockets than some how magicking that back into existence.
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Funeral homes and crematoriums.
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Supermarkets and gold are what I keep hearing.
But Bankers aren’t neccisarily trust worthy on that.
If you have money to do that with the actual advice is pretty much the same as always. Stable, long term shit like index funds and bonds. Then sit on it until you need it. Which is particularly useful when the market is way down, if you have anything to do that with.
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“Reopening the economy” is the same thing as hydroxychloroquine-- a desperate Hail Mary pass from conservatives to save the economy in time for the election so Trump can maybe get a victory.
And like hydroxycholoroquine it won’t work, it will make things worse. Both for the economy, the populace, and Trump’s re-election hopes.
The damage is done, there’s no going back to pre-COVID in such a short time frame, there’s no magic bullet here.
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The Daily Mash had one of it’s more brutally correct takes today:
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I expect a certain brand of patriots will flock to the restaurants, hair stylists, beaches, etc. And the whole shit show will begin again. After which, those that live will say, “We tried to save the economy, but those liberals wouldn’t let us. But THIS time…” Then repeat.
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How about when the rest of the world really reopens but won’t allow flights from the U.S. because we are in the process of reclosing?
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