The Economic Role of the Government in a Government-Created Depression
It is important to be clear about something in this pandemic: the mass quarantines and stay-at-home orders were not put in place because otherwise everyone would die. These orders were designed to keep the current medical infrastructure in place and allow for people who get the virus to have a greater chance of survival. According to the New York Times , the current number of worldwide cases is just above 3.5 million, with 251,457 deaths, placing the death rate at 7%. This would make it seem like getting the virus is no big deal, but that was never the risk factor. In the same way everyone was surprised when the found their grocery stores empty, none of our systems are designed to serve every single person at the same time. But because of these prudent precautions, we have also thrown our economy into something it cannot handle: a slowdown of cashflow. I could write a whole other post on the foolishness of our precarious economy which requires a majority of the populatio...