I'm suggesting that there has to be balance between facing our fears with courage and resolve and denying them altogether... We are being told 80% of people (and presumably throughout the world) will contract COVID-19:
https://www.the-sun.com/news/574277/new-york-cuomo-slams-groups-mnuchin-warns-12-weeks/We are being told to prepare for lockdown for the rest of the year, with little or no means for the average person to provide for or to protect themselves.
I will tell anyone who is seriously considering this as a viable solution,
it will absolutely not fly. If we accept this solution, society will collapse well before the virus takes its course and we the people will be subject to a fascist geopolitical bureaucratic/dictatorship tasked to manage the crisis. I see no other logical outcome. I can almost promise authoritarian government will come to pass well before the virus clears through the population, as there will be no other way to manage the ensuing chaos... People without food, shelter, clothing, and the basic resources for survival will demand it. With guns and baseball bats....
In this setup, many, many more people will die from democide and societal collapse than from the virus.
Alternatively:We can endure a brief shutdown to catch our breath--maybe two weeks maximum, and with a clear end date--and then reboot the economy come hell or high water.
Yes, some people will still contract the virus and some people will still die. I am not suggesting the government (governments are servants of the people) sit back and do nothing to combat the pandemic... nor do we sit back and go about our business and hope herd immunity takes hold without any planning; if this is a crisis, real or promulgated, I'm suggesting we aggressively mobilize the economy, similar to WWII, and stop producing cell phones, flat-screens and sports cars (I'm sure you can think of other things) and focus our collective effort on producing the following:
Mass production of ventilators
Mass production of hospital beds and necessary infrastructure to accommodate a real set of data of those who will need medical assistance.
Medical training/voluntary assistance on a mass scale
This, of course, is just the beginning of what the economy will need to produce at record pace to tackle this crisis. But this is what we should be focusing on, not shutting down the economy altogether.
Remember, most people will recover from this illness, but 20% may need hospitalisation and 5% may need critical care... that's the problem. But that's a problem our collective ingenuity and resolve can solve. We did it in WWII, and we can do it again.
Our economy has the ability to mass produce smart phones and automobiles and flat screen TVs for every individual (with stockholder's deadlines in mind); if we switch gears now, with humanitarian deadlines instead, and with the fervour and the full might of the government behind a new directive, we should be able to remobilise production to accommodate the sick. We should then let the virus do as it will. Most well recover and do just fine--those at the highest risk will need to take precautions per the guidelines.
Is there really any other way to tackle this without losing our countries, our liberties, our very way way of life?
If we execute this approach we may just find less people perish from this thing than from tuberculosis, cancer, heart disease, car accidents... and yes, even the flu.
Whatever the case, a nine-month lockdown/allowing for global economic collapse/ushering in government assistance for our very survival (with conditions)/Marshal Law, ensuing hyperinflation, etc., etc., is not the answer.
Throwing out Constitutional Government is not the answer..
