Originally Posted by Idaho_Shooter
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Do you understand that the decision to shut down the economy isn't without consequences? There will likely be an increase in suicides and overdoses. There are reports about people not seeking medical care that may end up dying because they're too scared to go to the hospital. Not to mention the financial burden being placed on young workers, small business owners and others, that they might never fully recover from. And all this because the sainted elderly can't be expected to take sensible precautions to protect their own lives.


I absolutely understand that shutting down our economy has consequences.

But apparently you do not understand that doing nothing in the face of this pandemic would have had very serious consequences also.

First: Politically, The Democrats would have used lack of response to great political gain in their bid to take the Senate this year. Lack of action might well have given Democrats an increased lead in the house, and possibly given them the Presidency. Democrats would have declared inaction to be indecision and lack of concern by the President

Second: Financially, Our stock market started plummeting just as we started seeing the first C 19 infections in the US. Long before any lock downs were announced and almost a month before the first C 19 death was recorded in America. An economic crash was inevitable in America whether the Government had forced closures or not.

Americans, appear to be pretty damned stupid at times, especially those voting for socialist/communists. But we are among the most literate and educated people on the planet. With death tolls in the tens of thousands, and diagnosed infection counts in the hundreds of thousands, people would have abandoned public venues by now with no urging from the government.

Government edicts only slightly accelerated those shutdowns. And they will not go away in the next week or possibly the next month even if the governors and POTUS lift all restrictions tomorrow.

There is no reason to build cars, unless the public is buying cars. There is no reason to buy food and pay a wait staff at a restaurant unless people are coming in the door. And there is not much reason to hold a sporting event if only 1% of the stadium seats are filled. Those things are not going to happen until people are sure the source of contagion has been eliminated. That will not happen until after a successful vaccination program has been completed. Probably two years from now.

Third: Closures have definitely mitigated the force and the rapidity of spread of this disease. We have fortunately avoided the worst of the overcrowding we expected in the hospitals.

Response to the situation in America these last two months, and over the next two to three months is a very delicate balancing act. I for one am pretty damned satisfied with the tough decisions our President has been forced to make.

Apparently, from what I read here, some governors have gone a little nuts and overboard on their response. I surely hope their citizens remember that come the next election.

Suicides and overdoses? Probably straw man. If not, Darwin can always use all the help he can get. I am a lot more concerned with people running out of food and reaction to actual shortages in the inner cities.

And I thought the liberals in CO were fuggin nuts.