| The real wealth lost is all the production we would have had had we not shut down that is now lost forever. Yes, without shutdown some people would have taken sick days, etc, but the effect would be extremely manageable. We would not have people dropping like flies the way the flawed IMHE model implies. As to your question about rushing down the old path, it is very inappropriate for the government to destroy peoples’ livelihoods (and make no mistake, it was the government’s / our doing, _not_ covid), and then to turn around and say “you’re only screwed because government isn’t in your life _enough_!”. As your point revealed, this is actually IMO what democrats are very blatantly trying to do (I am calling out a specific party because it really is them who are still pushing for these lockdowns). It’s not relevant, but know that I support UBI (iff it replaces welfare rather than being in addition to it), but not like this. This would be such an evil way to introduce UBI: manufacturing a problem and then “fixing” it. — The inequality exacerbation is not a consequence of our economy. The government created it by creating the concept of “essential workers”. All workers are exactly as essential as the economy (we) decide(s) they are. But we didn’t just prevent wealth from being created, the media combined with our incompetent public health officials created an unprecedented level of panic and fearmongering that most of us have never seen in our lives. The result? Case studies like this one: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016517812... (and no, this was not caused by covid, it was causes by the aforementioned fearmongering) |