Valid Questions and What Happens Next

Woodcut: Ship of Fools

There are numerous questions that I have pondered in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic. How long can the economic patient survive without economic oxygen?  How is this temporary medical crisis going to be used to curtail your freedoms permanently? And is the crisis temporary? Does the saying, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help,” frighten you? How will life change in the AC (after Coronavirus) when compared to life BC (before Coronavirus)?

Employment

The 6,648,000 seasonally adjusted for unemployment claims have doubled in the last two weeks. Millions of workers were furloughed and laid off as “demand for goods and services, as well as the ability to provide them” has decreased dramatically due to orders to stay home and to more severe lockdowns. Some states, however, have elected “business as usual” for their population.

Economists are predicting as many as 20 million unemployed by the end of April. Put that into perspective with the 8.7 million unemployed during the Great Recession. How high could the unemployment rate spike, 20 percent or perhaps 30 percent in the coming months?

According to Breitbart, “roughly 90% of the U.S. population is now under stay-at-home orders, which have been imposed by most U.S. states.” Disposable income is not coming in but rent, bills, loans, hospital bills, must be paid. https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2020/04/02/jobless-claims-jump-by-6-6-million/?fbclid=IwAR0gzqw0FFKOynSOhCONc52PhIaFGvQTeoku_NZ812e5WRVHiLtiL9S7nEY

Many Americans will get $1,200 from the U.S. government’s $2 trillion Economic Stimulus bill to mitigate the effects of the Coronavirus economic shutdown. This huge sum full of unnecessary and shameless political Democrat and some Republican pork will add to the already unpayable national debt as the government will have to print money to cover the sum, increasing inflation.

“Kyle Pomerleau, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, estimates that 165 million people, or 93% of all tax filers, will get some benefit, with about 140 million of them getting the full amount. Seniors whose only income is from Social Security and veterans who rely solely on disability payments will receive the payments.” https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-26/when-and-how-will-i-get-that-1-200-stimulus-payment-quicktake

Will that cash infusion arrive soon enough, how long will that last, and will the likely cash infusion into pre-existing goods (car payments, mortgage payments) which had already been counted into the previous GDP, really stimulate the economy?

Potential business collapse

Despite the stimulus bill, not all businesses will be able to keep their doors open and will close forever or will be bought out under a different umbrella for potential basement prices.

Businesses large and small must still pay rent and loans as well under collapsing revenue. There is Internet shopping, but some smaller businesses are not set up that way and shopping has dried up, limited to essentials. Restaurants, hotels, cruises, vacation venues, entertainment, theaters, parks revenues have dwindled. Malls have closed. And retailers were already in trouble before the Corona virus pandemic hit, they were slashing personnel and closing stores. Furthermore, the CBO expects the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to contract by 7 percent.

Obligatory Vaccinations

Afshin Yaghtin is writing in Principia Scientific.org that “Microsoft founder Bill Gates announced on March 18, 2020 during a “Reddit ‘Ask Me Anything’ session that he is working on a new, invisible ‘quantum dot tattoo’ implant that will track who has been tested for COVID-19 and who has been vaccinated against it.” The vaccine is being researched and tested and will be available soon. Yaghtin wonders, “Will this mean forced vaccinations or perpetually ‘sheltering in place’ for those who refuse the coronavirus vaccine?” https://principia-scientific.org/bill-gates-digital-tattoo-implant-to-track-covid-19-vaccine-compliance/?fbclid=IwAR1GG9CqQhJ3sewd9zoHufLh52x-gzy-pulD3QkWP0jkVEbDgMDWEfyJOtI

Working on the ID2020 Certification Mark, Gates Foundation, in alliance with Accenture, IDEO, Gavi, and the Rockefeller Foundation hopes to use “immunization to serve as a platform for digital identity” and to bring ID2020 to the masses.

How did Bill Gates become a medical expert as the main stream media is asking him questions which should be addressed to medical doctors and policy makers, not to a computer billionaire who dabbles in the population control agenda, vaccines, malaria prevention, and child vaccinations in Africa.

Schools and Universities

Schools and universities have closed for the remainder of the year. Many opted for online instruction and parents have stepped in with home schooling. Testing has been cancelled until further notice. Academic competitions as well as competitive sports have been canceled. Would schooling change in the future, with less and less physically going to class?

Telecommuting

Government employees and those working for large corporations can work from home. After kinks have been worked out, this may become the model for work in the future. In large metropolitan areas commuting by bus, metro, train, or “slugging”/rideshare in a stranger’s car have come to a halt.

Malls and stores

The locked and empty malls and stores may remain so permanently as people are moving more and more to online shopping as a business model. Ordering online and picking up items at the store will probably be eliminated when the overwhelming rush of home deliveries would have been resolved by the introduction of more trucks, routes, and drivers.

Socialized medicine

After decades of advocating for the socialized medicine model, Medicare for all and healthcare for none, Democrats will be happy to realize that one viral pandemic has succeeded in bringing in medicine based on a patient’s usefulness to society, age, and level of sickness. The much sought-after rationing that liberals have been pushing for years would have been achieved. Never have dentists been told by state governors that they must close their practices by a certain date.

Big Winners and Losers in Business

Intermediate businesses and mom and pop stores without Internet footprint were closed while the big companies like Walmart, which sold the same products plus food, could open via governor executive orders. Amazon emerged as the biggest winner.

Hygiene Habits

People finally learned how to properly wash their hands often and keep a 6-foot distance from the nearest human. People also finally realized what a great sanitizer Purell is and how scarce toilet paper and other necessities become under socialism. They also learned how to stand in line every day in order to find food or paper products. Some Americans learned to sneeze and cough onto their sleeves. The old German handshake will disappear, replaced by fist and elbow bumps. Hugging, a favorite of Americans, will become obsolete or verboten.

Environmental liberals have finally learned that reusable grocery bags are contaminated and harbor many harmful bacteria and viruses which are spread around through bags that are not sanitized/washed at high temperatures after each use.

Family Time

Americans rediscovered their wives, children, and loved ones, and learned that spending more time with them instead of watching sports on television was quite fun and became happier, enjoying life to the fullest. Not eating in restaurants so often but having meals at home and cooking favorites for each family member became a new and enjoyable experience, brushing up on cooking skills long forgotten due to the hustle and bustle of commuting and too many competitive activities.

Freedoms Lost

Freedom of assembly was curtailed overnight by governors’ decrees. People were fined for having parties at home with more than 10 people, a highly arbitrary number based on bogus determination. Was there an exact footage that 10 people could interact on? Forced “social distancing” altered people’s behavior towards one another.

Freedom of religion was also restricted. Interestingly, we did not hear anything about closed mosques, just churches, temples, and synagogues. Large churches may never recover.

People were forbidden by governor’s orders in Virginia to practice at indoor gun ranges.

National parks, forests, and local and state parks were also closed. Night fishing and boat were also forbidden. Picnics in parks were limited to 10 people and in other areas they were entirely verboten.

Traveling by airplane and cruise ships was also curtailed. The cruise ship industry may never recover fully, especially huge vessels that could accommodate several thousand passengers. There will be less airlines as the industry struggles to recover passengers lost.

Airports will be plagued by more invasive health screenings under the guise of protecting the population from unseen threats.

More After-effects

Americans will learn that the death panels appended in 2010 Obamacare do exist under the guise of rationing and these will increase over time.

Hotels and global vacation venues will struggle to recover for years especially in countries like Italy and Spain.

Organized sports, already under attack for bodily injuries and by transgenderism, may never recover. Olympics will be derailed.

Lost jobs and income, involuntary isolation, forced distancing will cause loss of homes, marriages, and even families.

Depression and a sense of hopelessness and confusion will cause suicides to rise. Rodney Atkinson predicts that “the suicides from the economic and social effects of lockdown will far exceed the number of deaths actually caused by the Coronavirus.” He wrote that worldwide deaths were 21,297 by Coronavirus, 113,034 from seasonal flu, 228,095 from malaria, and 249,904 from suicide (in the period of March 1-25, 2020) http://freenations.net/a-pandemic-is-a-panic-of-academics-lockdown-suicidesvirus-flights/

Atkinson said, “there are increasing reports of family killings and suicide in Britain as families face the desperation of lockdown and financial worry. A tragic case from Germany was the suicide of the Finance Director of the State of Hessen, Thomas Schaefer, because he had become depressed about how to cope with the economic collapse due to the lockdown.”

Americans will have to realize that food and resources are limited and may have to get used to less supply, long lines, and rationing.

Whether this pandemic was accidental or not, the end result will be the crashed consumption and production which will affect the global economy profoundly due to severe unemployment, recession, significant wealth loss, diminished or wiped-out savings, depleted pension funds and, over time, if recovery is slow worldwide, it may cause localized skirmishes and more tribal wars.