The governor of NJ has just laid out his recovery from the pandemic plan. Of course, when that plan starts depends on what happens with the number of new Covid-19 cases. If they decrease enough for a 14-day period, then certain business can start to reopen.
The governor presented a 2-d grid where jobs that risk communicating the virus was represented by the X-axis while Y-axis represented how essential the business was to preserve life. When reopening begins, the most essential jobs that have the lowest risk of catching and spreading the virus which are still closed would be the first ones to be opened.
But I have a question. Currently, only the most essential jobs are allowed to be open regardless of the risk. But with the economy taking such a hit, why not allow the businesses whose operations pose the least risk of spreading the virus to open now?
The point I would like to make is this: there is more than one reality that is pressing in on us at the current time. And so far the response to the pandemic from both the nation and most of the states is to respond to only one of those realities while ignoring the others until the current reality becomes much less of a threat. The problem is if we picture each reality with its own set of icebergs to avoid. To address only one reality to avoid its icebergs might be causing us to, inadvertently sail in a collision course with the icebergs from the other realities.
Another reality that is pressing in on us is the economic reality. That economic reality carries with it both personal and group bankruptcies. The icebergs that come with the economic reality includes the effects that those bankruptcies, poverty, and all of the problems that the economic carries as well as limited potential for recovery. State debts could, if some Republicans have their way, cause states to declare bankruptcy allowing judges to determine what debts each state involved will pay back as well as increase unemployment.
Certainly the federal government has not entirely avoided the economic reality with the stimulus package. But the question is, how many stimulus packages can the federal government afford since it was already causing the deficit to spike more than it has been with the combination of its spending on goodies from corporations and tax cuts to reduce taxes for the wealthiest? As one magazine article noted, when economic times were good was the time to focus on our decaying infrastructure. But instead, our government was pursuing an Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, rescue of the wealthiest from having insufficient obscene wealth. And who knows how long we can continue to allow the national debt to grow before we experience serious damaging results?
We need to include, in our response to the pandemic, a concern for the economy on all levels: nation, regional, state, city, local, and personal along with our need to drastically reduce new cases of the virus. For we don't know how much we can reduce new instances of the virus. How much damage will be done to the economy and people's lives while attempting to reach medical goals, which might be unreachable, for too long a period of time?
And none of that includes the social concerns of the effects that the loss of jobs, incomes, and a social life can have on people's lives. Those effects make up just another set of icebergs that we should strive to avoid.
By paying too much attention to the icebergs that come with the medical issues involved with the pandemic, and those issues are extremely important, we might still find ourselves on a collision course with other icebergs. They just won't be the icebergs that were on our radar because of our selective focus. Here we should remember that Covid-19 is not the only thing that can sink our nation.
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Showing posts with label Covid-19 Pandemic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Covid-19 Pandemic. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 28, 2020
Tuesday, April 7, 2020
Week #4 Of The New Life
The efforts of many financially well-off people and the commercials have been providing a public message of some comfort: 'we are all in this together.' What are we in together? It is the concept of staying at home and keeping 6 feet apart when out in public and only leaving home when it is essential. It is called Social Distancing. And Social Distancing is needed to be embraced and practiced during the Covid-19 Pandemic.
For most of the people I know, the social distancing and staying home is doable. Why? That is because their incomes are secure which enables them to practice Social Distancing and follow the other guidelines provided. Their, or I should say our, problems during the pandemic revolve around missing the old life. We miss the freedom of going out anytime we want to be with friends. We miss doing nonessential shopping without a care in the world.
But Social Distancing is not an option for many people whose jobs and/or or other factors do not allow for them to stay safely employed at home. Some have lost jobs and thus lost income needed to survive. Yes, the government will help but the question becomes when will enough help come. Others have to work jobs where either their jobs or their means of transportation prohibit them from practicing Social Distancing. So now they are put into the position of risking their lives in order for them to provide a living for themselves and their loved ones. All of that is why opinion writer, Charles M. Blow, wrote an article called, Social Distance Is A Privilege. He related it to race because of the type of jobs many Blacks work (please click here to read his article). If we are all in this together, how are those who are privileged in this with those who are not?
And we should note that this pandemic cannot be eliminated for some of us in the world unless it isn't eliminated in all nations. Thus we should read what Rana Ayyub, a writer for Foreign Policy, noted in his article that shares the same title as Charles M. Blow's previously mentioned article. But there is difference between the two articles because Ayyub's article looks how many in India cannot practice social distancing for reasons some of which are different from the ones observed by Blow (click here for Ayyub's article).
So the more one can practice Social Distancing, the more privileged one is. And one of my favorite influences, Noam Chomsky, has stated that having privilege implies having certain responsibilities to those who are underprivileged. Being able to practice Social Distancing is due to being financially secure or privileged. Are those of us who are financially privileged helping those who are not? And I am not asking about the privileged members of the upper economic classes? Some of them are providing a great deal of help for many in need. I am referring to those in the middle class. We too need to find ways to help the underprivileged to get the necessities in life. And there are multiple ways to do that.
Social Distancing, or what some leftists prefer to call 'Social Solidarity With Physical Distancing,' should be followed when possible. It allows some of us to be in it together by staying home and staying 6 feet apart from one another as well as following the other guidelines that are not part of Social Distancing. But there are some whose basic survival depends on them breaking the Social Distancing rules that we can keep. All who are privileged enough to be able to practice Social Distancing must find ways to be in this together with those who must often break Social Distancing to survive. And those of us who are privileged enough to following the Social Distancing guidelines must also look to help those whose survival has been put at a greater risk because of their economic vulnerability in 'these uncertain times.'
For most of the people I know, the social distancing and staying home is doable. Why? That is because their incomes are secure which enables them to practice Social Distancing and follow the other guidelines provided. Their, or I should say our, problems during the pandemic revolve around missing the old life. We miss the freedom of going out anytime we want to be with friends. We miss doing nonessential shopping without a care in the world.
But Social Distancing is not an option for many people whose jobs and/or or other factors do not allow for them to stay safely employed at home. Some have lost jobs and thus lost income needed to survive. Yes, the government will help but the question becomes when will enough help come. Others have to work jobs where either their jobs or their means of transportation prohibit them from practicing Social Distancing. So now they are put into the position of risking their lives in order for them to provide a living for themselves and their loved ones. All of that is why opinion writer, Charles M. Blow, wrote an article called, Social Distance Is A Privilege. He related it to race because of the type of jobs many Blacks work (please click here to read his article). If we are all in this together, how are those who are privileged in this with those who are not?
And we should note that this pandemic cannot be eliminated for some of us in the world unless it isn't eliminated in all nations. Thus we should read what Rana Ayyub, a writer for Foreign Policy, noted in his article that shares the same title as Charles M. Blow's previously mentioned article. But there is difference between the two articles because Ayyub's article looks how many in India cannot practice social distancing for reasons some of which are different from the ones observed by Blow (click here for Ayyub's article).
So the more one can practice Social Distancing, the more privileged one is. And one of my favorite influences, Noam Chomsky, has stated that having privilege implies having certain responsibilities to those who are underprivileged. Being able to practice Social Distancing is due to being financially secure or privileged. Are those of us who are financially privileged helping those who are not? And I am not asking about the privileged members of the upper economic classes? Some of them are providing a great deal of help for many in need. I am referring to those in the middle class. We too need to find ways to help the underprivileged to get the necessities in life. And there are multiple ways to do that.
Social Distancing, or what some leftists prefer to call 'Social Solidarity With Physical Distancing,' should be followed when possible. It allows some of us to be in it together by staying home and staying 6 feet apart from one another as well as following the other guidelines that are not part of Social Distancing. But there are some whose basic survival depends on them breaking the Social Distancing rules that we can keep. All who are privileged enough to be able to practice Social Distancing must find ways to be in this together with those who must often break Social Distancing to survive. And those of us who are privileged enough to following the Social Distancing guidelines must also look to help those whose survival has been put at a greater risk because of their economic vulnerability in 'these uncertain times.'
Tuesday, March 31, 2020
Week #3 Of The New Life
There is a difference between calling something that is bad, good, and trying to make the best of a bad situation. Regardless of what good comes from the pandemic, the pandemic has visited much suffering and death around the world.
But one possible good thing that can come from this pandemic is that it has the possibility of producing similar results that could happen if we were invaded by space aliens. All too often, I've heard how the world would heal its divisions and unite if we were invaded by space aliens. So hopefully the building of unity that is occurring in communities, states, the nation, and the world will carry over after the pandemic is over.
But how can we sustain the current unity after the pandemic? One way is to build reminders of what we went through during this time. We could build reminders of the private fears, of those who required all levels of medical care, of those who died, of those who lost jobs, of those who went hungry, and of those who suffered in other ways.
We also need to remember that the suffering does not end after the pandemic. Many who lost jobs and need assistance during the pandemic will be in the same situation after the pandemic minus the health risk. So we need to build reminders of what they will go through afterwards. But not only that, we need to let our elected officials know that such people still need help.
There are other reminders to build. Those are the reminders of how individuals and groups supported each other (click here for an example). We also need to build reminders of all the workers whose jobs forced them to face risks of getting the virus that the rest of us could avoid by staying home. Of course those whose jobs force them to take risks include doctors, nurses, other hospital workers, police officers and other first responders, employees of grocery stores, drug stores, and gas stations, postal workers, those in industry who make essential household items, agricultural workers, those who work processing our food, and so forth.
We also need to remember how those in our prisons face risks as well as the correction officers who watch over them. We need to document what people from all groups went through.
We need reminders of all of the suffering and sacrifices people endured just as we have reminders of man-made sufferings such as what we can see at the Holocaust Museum or the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Only the difference between the reminders of this pandemic and what those two museums remind us of is whereas those museums remind us in order to prevent us from repeating history, the reminders of what we are going through now would be for the purpose of keeping the unity alive which is building now. And we should keep that unity alive for as long as possible.
But one possible good thing that can come from this pandemic is that it has the possibility of producing similar results that could happen if we were invaded by space aliens. All too often, I've heard how the world would heal its divisions and unite if we were invaded by space aliens. So hopefully the building of unity that is occurring in communities, states, the nation, and the world will carry over after the pandemic is over.
But how can we sustain the current unity after the pandemic? One way is to build reminders of what we went through during this time. We could build reminders of the private fears, of those who required all levels of medical care, of those who died, of those who lost jobs, of those who went hungry, and of those who suffered in other ways.
We also need to remember that the suffering does not end after the pandemic. Many who lost jobs and need assistance during the pandemic will be in the same situation after the pandemic minus the health risk. So we need to build reminders of what they will go through afterwards. But not only that, we need to let our elected officials know that such people still need help.
There are other reminders to build. Those are the reminders of how individuals and groups supported each other (click here for an example). We also need to build reminders of all the workers whose jobs forced them to face risks of getting the virus that the rest of us could avoid by staying home. Of course those whose jobs force them to take risks include doctors, nurses, other hospital workers, police officers and other first responders, employees of grocery stores, drug stores, and gas stations, postal workers, those in industry who make essential household items, agricultural workers, those who work processing our food, and so forth.
We also need to remember how those in our prisons face risks as well as the correction officers who watch over them. We need to document what people from all groups went through.
We need reminders of all of the suffering and sacrifices people endured just as we have reminders of man-made sufferings such as what we can see at the Holocaust Museum or the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Only the difference between the reminders of this pandemic and what those two museums remind us of is whereas those museums remind us in order to prevent us from repeating history, the reminders of what we are going through now would be for the purpose of keeping the unity alive which is building now. And we should keep that unity alive for as long as possible.
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