Donald Trump makes a bet on the character of Americans.
Back to normal.
"Let's get on with it."
Barry Sternlicht, Starwood Capital Group
Trump is signaling his plan for a change in policy: The cure is worse than the disease.
Even people in a position to shelter in place are tired of it. No one likes feeling trapped.
Meanwhile, the economy is shutting down. Employers have businesses to run, with fixed costs. They cannot just freeze in place. A stopped business is a business that is collapsing. Unemployment is skyrocketing. Working people have jobs to get back to, bills to pay. It is economic chaos, and the stock market has fallen 35%. The stock market is lower than it was when Trump was inaugurated.
Besides, young people have friends to see.
Besides, young people have friends to see.
Americans made a "social compact" decision. We looked at Italy and shuddered. The word went out: "flatten the curve." We are all better off, Americans heard, if we slow the spread of the virus so that we don't overload the healthcare system. Everyone needs to participate because even symptom-free people spread the disease. Can't we all care for one another? Can't we all get along? Can't we have a spirit of patriotism? No. not really. It requires intergenerational thinking and selflessness we no longer have. Americans elected Trump.
Trump got elected with an ethic of American self interest. Globalism and sharing was for saps and losers. Competition is the nature of the world and there are winners and losers. In business, in statecraft, and in politics, vote your interest.
"Ask what your country can do for you?" Darned right. Ask. You don't ask, you don't get. Winners take care of Number One.
This ethnic is reflected in policy preferences of candidates and voters. Different states have different attitudes. Governors of blue state New York, California, and Washington have high numbers of virus cases and have taken aggressive action. Red state Nebraska has few cases and its governor has not instituted a "shelter in place" policy. Trump praised the Nebraska governor.
The people paying the greatest price for "social distancing" -- businesses and employees -- are not the ones who are the primary beneficiaries, the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions. America is shutting down the economy for the benefit of people who have largely aged out of it. It is an act of patriotic, humanitarian generosity.
Yet older Americas don’t "feel the Bern" nor an acute inter-generational obligation, not as a group. They have their Medicare and don't want to share it with the young; they overwhelmingly oppose Medicare for All. Older Americans consider student debt a problem the young ought to solve on their own. Old people support Biden, not Sanders, the spokesperson for the young.
Trump started out by downplaying the virus, recognizing that the virus endangered the economy. That is the natural place for Trump, the money guy, not the public health guy. He is returning to his first instinct. It's the economy, stupid.
There is an alternative approach for Americans, representing the view that Trump is signaling: Let the vulnerable population protect itself by isolating itself, and the economy should go back to normal. The status quo is intolerable. If businesses reopen and the American workforce goes back to work the virus will spread, just like every other common cold, every year's seasonal flu. So what? Young people will get it and most will shrug it off, same as normal. Let's stop the over-reaction. Some people will get sick, some won't. That's life.
Dan Patrick, the Republican Lt. Governor in Texas put it this way: "If that's the exchange, I'm all in. . . . We can't lose our whole country, we're having an economic collapse. My message is: Let's get back to work. Those of us who are 70-plus, we'll take care of ourselves, but don't sacrifice the country."
It is the new message, being whispered on Fox. Let the old do the sheltering in place, if they want. It is the normal way Americans deal with risk. People each evaluate their own risks and protect themselves. If you don't want the coronavirus, you stay home.
Don't young people get very sick, too? Yes, but nearly all of them survive; at least, that is what they believe. The young think they are invulnerable and are willing to take their chances. They have bills to pay and lives to lead.
8 comments:
Mr. Sage,
Why don't you tell us what you would do about the virus if you were president? Trump can't do anything right by you. What would you do? Frankly, you don't have a clue.
Mr. Sage, do you support the goodie bag of special interest expenditures that Pelosi just proposed in her coronavirus bill? Are airplanes, and abortion, and student loan debt, and payments to illegals pertinent to solving this coronavirus crisis? Pelosi doesn't care about Americans. She wants to use this crisis to push her personal agenda. Pelosi is disgusting and vile, and no other democrat (other than perhaps Cuomo) is doing anything to help Americans.
Dear Anonymous,
Better for you to identify yourself. Why hide?
I would immediately increase the unemployment fund under emergency orders so that laid off employees get about 75% of their prior wage up to about $4000/month. That way businesses can lay off employees, as the must, to reduce costs. This should be available for up to 90 days.
The Pelosi grab bag you mention is intended to prohibit Trump from having a $500 million slush fund to give to businesses as grants. When a version of that happened in 2009 companies (banks) paid out big bonuses to executives and taxpayers were rightfully furious.
"America is shutting down the economy for the benefit of people who have largely aged out of it. "
Today a genius (on FOX, naturally) suggested that older people should be willing to get sick and die for the sake of the economy.
Quote:
"'As a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the America that America loves for its children and grandchildren?' And if that is the exchange, I'm all in.”
What's next? "Culling of the herd"?
You illuminate the fundamental Regressive mindset and in doing so also reveal its sociopathic roots. The net effect of an economic slowdown to fight the pandemic will be to reduce the fortunes of the 1% by around 20%. Your average millionaire will be left with $800K. Most everyone else has little to lose as long as the society imposes a moratorium on expenses that will bankrupt the average American, and that is happening.
Seniors have Social Security. Think for a moment what that means. It was designed to provide for those who have "aged out", and will serve that purpose during the crisis. The first impulse of Regressives is to sacrifice them forgetting that every cent of Social Security is returned to the economy. Nobody is buying derivatives with their monthly check. Well off seniors are going on cruises, taking trips to Europe, and buying Corvettes.
The current administration is stalling, on the faint hope that things will somehow magically improve and they won't need to acknowledge the crisis. Every day we are subjected to a MAGA rally masquerading as public health update.
Congress is responding in the only way it can: bailouts.
The basic function of government is to protect citizens from harm and ensure fairness in the economy. It's happening everywhere but the White House.
Trump's no-fear message that people die in cars and from flu is a political winner"
Social science surveys show that conservatives fear political change, liberals fear the political status quo. Liberals fear global warming, conservatives not so much. Liberals fear keeping people in jail, conservatives fear letting them out. Liberals fear anti-immigrant and racist talk and want safe spaces. Conservatives respond what nonsense. So it is with "the virus".
In my travels I have heard a growing resentment that the "boomer remover " is shutting down the whole economy and that everybody under age 50 is supposed to sacrifice everything so as not to get a bunch of old people sick who will die from it. That the U.S. epicenters are in solid blue sanctuary cities in New York, California and Washington not only doesn't hurt Trump it will probably help him. It looks to me that Trump is going to come out of this much stronger if he keeps dismissing as gutless all the "sky is falling" people. I don't think it depends on how many people die. I think it depends more on where they die-- red or blue.
Outside of the virus hotspots in blue cities the rest of America is relatively OK so far. The fact is that infection rates directly correlate to high density living both per square mile in communities and square foot in homes. GOP voters don't live with their grandmothers nor have large families. Democrats and immigrants do. The Seattle, New York and San Francisco death rates will be blamed on their politics, their lifestyles and their health departments, not on Trump.
Nor is Trump going to be blamed for a worldwide economic collapse. Instead he is going to get credit if the American economy is simply notably better than the European and Asia economies. On an evacuation flight back from Honduras on Saturday, I sat next to a group of 40 somethings returning to their homes in New York City, the Bronx. I gave them some of my bleach wipes talking with them through my mask and surgical gloves. They were very resentful that they were going back into quasi-mandatory quarantine saying that "at least Trump isn't doing that". They felt zero risk they can't handle from the virus. Now I am in Florida, the beach parking lots are all closed, but people park their cars on the side streets and lug their towels and umbrellas to the beach. They are in favor of getting out and living life rather than hunkering down in their homes.
That's the cold hard choice-- hunker down like blue governors demand (or now order as in Oregon), or go out and live on your own terms with you deciding the risk. Trump and the GOP is the latter, Biden Democrats is the former. No contest will be presented by Italy-like death rates in New York City, Seattle or San Francisco. That's cold hard politics.
Thad Guyer
All of this is forgetting the pain and deaths going on in Italy and other stricken countries.
All of this is ignoring the health experts saying we need to flatten the curve.
It won't be forever, but we need to stay home a bit longer.
We are seeing the results of crowded living, and the virus has yet to reach its peak.
The idea that this is confined to blue states and large cities is belied by a quick look at the map of the US posted on https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6
Without a quick expansion in testing (at most only 300,000 Americans have been tested to date) this virus will hit a large percentage of Americans and each of us will know someone who died from this if we have a 1-2% mortality rate. It won't matter if you live in a Blue state or a Red state - the longer we go without identifying carriers and isolating them, the longer we are at risk of Italy-like death rates.
As Peter answers Anonymous above, the Feds should pay individuals who are unemployed and we should not bailout large corporations that are likely to use a cash infusion to buy back stock to boost their share prices, not keep workers employed.
To provide a little reader diversity....
This makes me wonder how my fellow Christians, who (unlike me) are unfailing Trump-supporters, reconcile his cavalier view with one of the foundational principles of their DJT loyalty; i.e. the promise of judicial appointments who will honor the sanctity of human life. If they were outraged with the notion of "death panels" in their objections to the ACA, then this is the same issue. If they find themselves agreeing with Trump that the health of the economy is more sacrosanct than human lives - then 1 Tim 6:10 would suggest they are looking at the wrong moral compass.
my two cents.
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