Not our decision. Depends on the jurisdiction and the ownership.
Not our decision. Depends on the jurisdiction and the ownership.
if you've visited China, the number of old people as a percentage of the population is pretty staggering. They also seem amazingly fit for their age and their are huge groups of them performing tai chi in all the parks around the cities. China has a population problem. Not enough youngsters, too many old people.
Here's some thoughts from someone who has been lurking on this thread since it began.
At this point I'm much more worried about what happens if the economy doesn't start moving soon.
There are already reports of layoffs happening. When I worked construction, most guys were paid weekly and some of them lived week-to-week. Those gentlemen and many like them aren't going to be very patient and understanding without any income.
People have obviously thought of this, because now there's a plan to give everyone who makes below a certain threshold $1,000. That can happen once, maybe twice. But if this this thing goes on for months like some are predicting, are we just going to keep handing out $1000 to everyone? What happens to inflation if that continues? What happens to our already huge deficit? Are we going to tack trillions of dollars on to that, plus loss of economic activity, and really expect that something terrible isn't going to happen?
I think that within four weeks this thing will either have to calm down, or else Bad Stuff will start happening.
Hot take: If the virus is as bad as some think it is (I don't think it is), our two options seem to be either an overwhelmed healthcare system, or waking up in several months to something that probably won't resemble the United State anymore. Neither of those options is good, but to me one seems much more not good than the other.
How many wait staff in Dallas TX just got laid off? Nationally?
Perhaps a wise course would be the following:
1) Initiate extreme social distancing for enough time for hospitals to gracefully prepare for higher activity - e.g. recruiting, training, procuring enough medication, beds, ventilators, etc.
2) Gradually begin to loosen up the distancing.
3) Pay attention to what happens.
4) maintain, increase, or loosen restrictions.
5) repeat steps 3 and 4.
One more tinfoil hat-hot take before I go back to lurking: The pressure for this panic seems like it's originating from the health insurance/health care industry. That's where the money trail leads.
They see the situation in Italy, forecast what things could look like in the US if the same thing happens here, and realize they could be on the hook directly/indirectly for a lot of money and man-hours they hadn't planned on (and lots of exhausted/ burned out employees in an industry that's already hurting for workers).
Alternatively or additionally, the people behind the curtain at Medcaire/Medicade realized the same things and decided it was prudent to go for the nuclear option rather than risk a blow up in their programs.
To those who hold up Italy as the reason we need to be on DEFCON 1: The situation in Italy seems to be an outlier. Why aren't other European countries experiencing the same thing? Does Italy have significantly more contact with China? Why isn't the same thing happening in other countries that have contact with China? Could it be a combination of poor hospitals and government, plus cultural factors and unknown unknowns?
Whether the economy implodes or hospitals go over-capacity, tax money gets distribute somewhere and people will die. It seems obvious to me that the effects will be much less severe if we don't blow up the economy.