Republicans are working overtime to make us believe there are only two options

[Quixote1818]

Either people die from the virus or the economy crashes and they die from poverty. But there is a third option. Pay for certain sectors to stay home and fund it by taxing the absurdly wealthy. Not too much different from the New Deal which along with WWII Gov. spending created the greatest middle class in American history after the Great Depression. The 1% owns about 34 trillion currently. https://usafacts.org/articles/wealth-america-how-it-has-grown-and-how-it-distributed/

If Democrats can win all three branches of Gov. this would be a great opportunity for another New Deal economy.

[rampartc]

1. may as well dream.

[Hortensis]

2. The only moral and practical option is to do BOTH

as well as possible. Any time someone says it must be either-or, it's time to guard your pockets and plug your ears.

What's good for our people is good for our country. A little expansion that GM CEO and SecDef Charles Wilson would approve on his, "What's good for our country is good for General Motors, and vice versa."

[jimfields33]

5. Joy Reid had a doctor who I guess was an expert on virus'

She said the fastest we’ll see a vaccine is 5 years! Obviously is that I’d true, we are going to have to live with the virus. We cannot close for 5 years. Now granted that’s one persons opinion but what if she’s right?

[Hortensis]

9. The key is LIVE successfully with the virus without sacrificing individuals

to the gods of business, and in the process destroying the very soul of our nation and turning it into something very ugly and different.

Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,..."

Abraham Lincoln: "...that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

We're there again: At the point where we must decide between the rights of the individual to live and the duty of the state to serve the people, versus the right of the state to sacrifice individuals to serve it.

"Liberalism is the individual. Fascism is the state." Benito Musselini, who fully understood the differences and replaced the representative legislature with a committee of business leaders.

[jimfields33]

10. If 5 years is accurate, it's impossible to have both.

States like New York have lost 66 billion in two months. There is no way they can go 5 years losing that kind of money AND yes federal government can print more money times 50 states. That’d be near impossible for 5 years.

[Hortensis]

11. And yet we're already adapting and there are many other ways

and degrees we could. Just imagine an America where testing for and clearing whole areas -- and keeping them clear -- geographic and business, of virus was routine. Where much more effective treatments had been developed and were commonly available. Where response to outbreaks was as efficient and effective as it has been before and can be. Where people with special vulnerabilities could be identified and deemed eligible for special protections before COVID-2 infection revealed them.

Btw, long before those 5 years were up, we would of course also have identified many millions who were exposed, often multiple times, without falling seriously ill. You know, for whom SARS-CoV-2 really was not much more dangerous than the common cold, if at all.

Currently, with respect to keeping people and business alive and healthy, thanks to the Republicans in the WH and senate, our national government is doing almost everything wrong and nothing right. This is not anything we should plan on continuing and adapting TO.

[Igel]

3. What I'm mosting hearing is

there's a third option--social distancing with moderate opening of most businesses. In other words, there's a way to make it safe--and if you personally don't, I just avoid you, even if the choice has consequences. (Choices always have consequences. Even the bankruptcy of small businesses is the consequence of a choice, however much we want to blame the universe.)


Lots of "Look, this person objects to X, this person is a Y, therefore all Y object to X" kinds of thinking going on. I hate it when others do it to me and stereotype and overgeneralize, often wrongly generalizing. It's not something I have a great desire to do to others--granted, it's not at the august heights of that "golden rule" thing, but it does follow the silver rule.

Silver rule:

The principle that one should not treat other people in the manner in which one would not want to be treated by them. (Thanks, wiki.)

If you can't come up to the level of the golden rule, silver's the next best thing to shoot for.



Many go for the lead rule. Which is that you rule over your lessers, if need be, by the used of directed high-speed lead pellets.

[jimfields33]

6. Some businesses won't be able to survive on a 25 percent occupancy

Such a mess!

[Quixote1818]

7. Mark Cuban was talking about this. You may have already seen it.

[jimfields33]

8. I actually didn't. Thank you!!!!!!!!!

[Chainfire]

12. I don't think businesses have to worry about the 25% thing for long

It is only a matter of weeks before the government begins to totally ignore the presence of the virus. The only thing that they have yet to figure out is how to hide the numbers of deaths.

[Newest Reality]

4. That's an abusive relationship...

In a way it exposes the underlying mentality of Republican fealty to industry.

You stay with the abuser, (and face it, many jobs are exploitative and/or abusive without rights to defend yourself with) and endure the bad treatment, or you gather up the courage to leave, which may also mean being in an insecure position with much uncertainty.