Since I’ve been home sick the past couple days, and since COVID-19 is affecting everyone’s life at this point, I suppose it wouldn’t do much good to do my planned piece, Economists: For Cryin’ Out Loud, Quit Listening.
At the same time, most everyone with a keyboard has the best course of action for dealing with this global pandemic, taking to social media and news comment sections to argue with all the other “experts.” Some are so worried that they think toilet paper will be the next currency, while others jump on our Facebook page to blame “the media” for fear mongering over something “not even as bad as the flu.”
Frankly, I have no problem owning the fact that I don’t know much about this virus, other than having an ability to Google a few statistics, follow the advice of health officials and exercise common sense. Other than that, which most everyone could do, I’m doing what anyone else is – waiting to see what happens next.
No one needs my thoughts on the seriousness of COVID-19, especially when the realization of that changes every day.
Four days ago it was low-risk, and the next day the U.S. cut off travel to Europe. The day after that we cancelled large gatherings and began putting our lives on hold. Then Sophie Grégoire Trudeau caught it and the federal health minister said up to seven in 10 of us could join her.
By the time this reaches you, things will no doubt have changed dramatically, and it doesn’t seem like many people have an overly educated guess on how that turns out. I think concern is smart, while fear is understandable, and I think we should all take steps to better each other’s safety.
That’s all I’ve got for you.
What I will do is discuss the obvious reality of this situation, which is Mother Nature is a force we can’t control and she doesn’t remotely care if she mucks with human creations like, say, the economy.
Whether you’re sad you missed the Brad Paisley concert and can’t watch the Oilers finally not suck, or whether you’re wondering how you might get to work should your kid’s school close, the virus doesn’t care. Whether you’re rich and powerful, or poor and unassuming, the virus doesn’t care. Whether you’re young and likely to slide through it unscathed, or in your golden years and therefore at the highest risk of not making it through at all, the virus doesn’t care.
But maybe most importantly, under this system, the virus does not give a damn how much money is in the budget to cover the cost of containing it. It doesn’t care about money you might lose from lack of work, or lack of customers, and it certainly doesn’t care if provinces or countries go deeper in debt.
It seems to me like this would be a good time to realize that money (something we made up) has no business standing in the way of being alive (something we did not). And if it shouldn’t stand in the way of life, why should it stand in the way of wellbeing?
More: https://medicinehatnews.com/commentary/opinions/2020/03/14/laying-it-out-we-dont-need-a-pandemic-of-failed-leadership/?fbclid=IwAR1ztbijS7-iQ9eTSAQ3s42sQBjkwpr8Iit1zyFZK7MZGsW__vAf-7LgzcA
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