During this Corona virus crisis I have done my best to stay informed. I am a well- educated health care professional with more than a couple of degrees, so I’m trying to listen carefully. I have watched the news in increasing frustration as the pundits and talking heads parrot the same stupid lines, “Flatten the curve”, and “We need more testing”, both statements are ridiculously true. Both things are not going to happen anytime in the near future. What I can’t believe, and am sick of waiting for is the ‘elephant in the room’ discussion which doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen.

The local government authorities have learned the hard way not to speak ill of the federal government. Unless the benevolent eye of the leaders is turned upon them, they’ve seen their aid, supplies and support evaporate right before their eyes. They can not afford to speak one critical word lest some of their constituents pay the ultimate price for their honesty.

President Trump alluded to it in a press briefing this week when he said that the testing is too expensive, and that no matter how much testing is done it will never be enough. Too true. So instead he presses that we need to get back to normal, whatever normal may end up being. A sentiment nauseatingly repeated by his sychopants both congressionally and on the air waves.

Normal isn’t going to be what it was before, at least not for a very long time is my guess. That is simply logistics”

The economy can not just snap open like a box of SnoCaps at the movie theater. First we need transportation, then we need increasing numbers of people to go back to work who create the infrastructure we depend upon. The cleaners, cooks, meat cutters, and on and on. Then the next layer, and the next. The demand will be there, but the products will not. So, don’t kid yourself, going outside for a walk and a run to the grocery store is not the same thing as opening the economy. It is not coming Monday, or next Monday. It is months away—maybe.

So here’s the deal. We all want the economy to open, we as a country can simply not sustain our survival without creating a GDP, we can all agree on that. We cannot afford to just keep sending checks to everyone either. Sooner or later, the shitpile of money will be depleted. Printing more will only devalue the money in your wallet already, if there is any. The difference though is simple mathematics, and here they are as I see them.

Universal testing is too expensive to waste on a $15/hour employee. $15/hr employees are expendable and the next one is easily trained into the vacancy should it come to that. The country will not shoulder the bill for the testing, and so ‘thoughts and prayers’ but suck it up. It’s not personal, it’s just business.

Those that make their money on the backs of ‘essential employees’ are watching the house burn and its uncomfortable. They want to open up the country and ‘just take the punch’, and let the chips fall where they may. Opening the country will trigger infections to spike again, and the death toll will rapidly climb well over 100K, but so what. We will be on our way to recovery, so quit your whining and step back into line. Those people, mostly minorities, will be the ones who die, not them. Our vast unskilled labor pool will be trimmed back a bit, a shame, but a necessary cost. Certainly, it will be far cheaper than testing and attempting to flatten the ever elusive curve. Those that voice these calls for return are primarily buffered in ivory towers, and monied hideaways, they can afford to wait until the coast is clear.

In the meantime, they will starve us out because we have to work in order to eat. There will be waves of infections as it sweeps across the country, striking previously uninfected and vulnerable populations. There is no need for universal testing because once we’re dead we won’t need it, and someone will just step into our spot in the line because we have to, in order to eat.

Eventually, there will be a vaccine, or herd immunity, but it will once again be expensive. It will be expensive because we need it, but they will get it first anyway. Just like the rush to get hydroxychloroquine, it will create a shortage and cause a raise in the price. Surprise!

And again, like hydroxychloroquine we will be the guinea pigs. I weep for those V.A. Vets who paid the ultimate price to determine that it didn’t work.

Not surprisingly, the same people that will profit from our return to the traces of economic slavery will also be those that ‘developed’ the miracle cure. Three cheers for them, now can we get back to work?

And the lemmings for no reason we can understand continued to race over the edge of the cliff. Let’s do our parts, but let’s not for one minute do it ignorantly. If our lives are just forfeit for someone else’s profit and we think that’s okay, then by all means be my guest. Or we can try something else.

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