Visual description of what lockdowns have done to the emotional and educational wellbeing of children. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.
Now that the economic and social shutdown rationalized by the pandemic is slowly fading away, we need to stay focused on the damages caused by intentional policies.
I have been citing a lot of coverage from the Wall Street Journal, but I am seeing the same issues covered by multiple other news outlets and a host of commentators. There is massively more coverage of the devastation caused by the shutdown than I could possibly take time to write about.
Here is merely a tiny sample of recent reports. Today’s post describes:
Destructive and death-causing policies continued even after evidence emerged that policies were causing harm. Liberty has been shredded. Financial damage is widespread.
Educational, psychological, and social damage to children has been severe. It will take a horribly long time for kids to recover.
Monday’s post will discuss:
Severe damage has been caused, only in part but a big part, by the inability to comprehend there are tradeoffs in every decision that has ever been made, especially in terms of addressing the pandemic. As another wag, whom I will not cite, pointed out: there are no solutions, only tradeoffs.
Yet another research analysis shows lockdowns had minimal impact on death rates yet caused extensive unemployment.
Status of many restaurants. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.
What does it look like from the customer side when businesses cannot find enough employees? My wife and I found out a few days ago.
After relaxing on Memorial Day, pondering the ultimate sacrifice by so many to provide the freedoms we enjoy, and exercising those freedoms, we decided to go out to eat. We went to Victoria Gardens, a large shopping center near our home.
Since the tradition for the day is cooking cheeseburgers on the grill but we don’t have a grill, we picked a ‘50s style café where we could get a cheeseburger and sweet potato fries. Yum!
Normally they would be open until 10 or 11 o’clock. Walking up to the restaurant we saw a paper sign taped to the door announcing they were only open until 8 PM.
Odd.
The door was locked. There were a few staff inside who appeared to be going through their end-of-day cleanup routine.
Article points out she was on the cover of Newsweek (yes, like you, I was also surprised to hear it is still around) featuring her efforts to save lives with strong rules.
Score in the hypocrisy race between the Michigan and California governors
In the race for biggest hypocrite, I’m embarrassed to say that my governor, Gavin Newsom, only has 1 flagrant hypocrisy on the scoreboard.
He has been far out distanced by the Michigan governor who is at 4.5 by my count. I’ll explain shortly how she only earns half credit for one incident.
So, the current score?
4.5 – Michigan governor
1.0 – California governor
Time is running out to even the score of 4.5-1
Governor of my state doesn’t have much time to even up the score. Several weeks ago he ordered by executive decree that the pandemic will end on June 15, 2021. On that exact date the state color-coding rules will disappear because he knows they won’t be needed anymore.
He only has two weeks to run up the count if he wants to be the hypocrisy champ.
Heavy bomber crewman, U.S. Army Air Force, World War 2. Photo from Legacy Flight Museum in Rexford, Idaho by James Ulvog.
Our freedom is under rapidly increasing assault by many politicians who think they are kings and queens appointed by divine right instead of having merely won a few more percentage points of the vote than their opponent in the last election. In the last year public health officials at the federal, state, and county levels who lack self-awareness of how often they beclown themselves have joined in the efforts to shred our liberty.
As a result of these attacks, it is ever more important that on this Memorial Day we remember those who shed all their blood so that we may be free.
A ‘thank you’ from me is so trivial, yet that is all I have.
I will demonstrate my appreciation for freedom purchased by others by exercising freedom.
Yesterday I exercised my freedom of religion. Tomorrow I will exercise my economic freedom, also called pursuit of happiness, by running my business the way I choose.
I have posted variations of the following ideas several times before. I will continue to make these points routinely.
Union Infantry private, U.S. Civil War, 1961-1865. Photo from Legacy Flight Museum in Rexford, Idaho by James Ulvog.
While touring the U.S.S. Midway Museum in San Diego early this month, I wore a “U.S. Air Force” ball cap with various stuff pinned to it, such as the rank I wore, a missile badge (“pocket rocket” for those who know), SAC logo, and a rectangular piece of metal that declares “Combat Crew.”
During the course of walking around, I got lots of glances and several comments of “thank you for your service.”
Also got some joshing comments from the retired Navy guys about them ‘allowing’ me on their ship. Since we were all on the same team back in the day, the kidding was pure fun.
I was on active duty for only four years and that was decades ago. I never got within 3,000 miles of hostile action. (Of course if the flag had gone up, I would have been radioactive dust at 20,000 feet altitude about 40 minutes later.)
As a result, I was uneasy for a long time when someone said “Thanks for your service.”
It took me a few years to get to get comfortable with those comments.
I now graciously and proudly accept those expressions of appreciation from my fellow Americans, but not because of what I did so long ago.
The bad news caused by the government imposed shut down of the economy keeps rolling in.
Merely a few recent articles:
The “laptop class” did well, while the working class was delivering their stuff, taking on the risks of infection.
Rents in New York City are in freefall.
Record levels in discount off the posted tuition rate for private colleges, which is an indicator of collapsing demand and indicator of future financial distress.
Millions are unemployed while companies can’t find enough workers.
The laptop class was able to stay at home, fully employed with no loss of income. In fact, with no commuting costs and not eating out for lunch many in the laptop class were left better off.
They stayed home and the working class delivered their stuff.
(As with the previous discussion, this comment is cross-posted from my other blog, Attestation Update. This information is useful not just for CPAs interpreting the financial results of their clients, but also for readers of this blog, because the rapid run-up of inflation fears is a risk to economic freedom. If we return to the devastating inflation rates of the 1970s, we would see severely harm to economic freedom.)
Previous post suggested It’s time to start monitoring inflation. The dramatic increase in inflation rate in March and April 2021 suggests we need to be watching the inflation numbers more closely.
Not only does this help us generally understand what is going on around us, but specifically it helps us understand and interpret our clients’ financial results as we provide audit and review services.
A few articles I have found helpful in the recent weeks providing context on the inflation environment:
5/5/21 – Wall Street Journal – Everything Screams Inflation– Columnist senses a possible shifting point from the low inflation we have seen for a very long time, going back to a sustained period of high inflation.
He cites five general trends which point towards years of high inflation:
Federal judge ruled the moratorium is a flagrantly illegal power grab. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.
A bit of good news to go with the ongoing indications of economic destruction.
Federal judge ruled the CDC can’t force landlords to provide no-cash-payment housing.
Black homeowners having more difficulty getting back on track with mortgage payments than other ethnic groups. Economic impact of shutdowns are falling disproportionately hard on minorities.
Rent prices in New York City continue in freefall.
No, although it may be your first reaction, that is not socialism. The government telling you what to do with your property, how much to produce, and controlling the price you can charge, thus converting the property into de facto government property, actually falls into the definition of the economic system of fascism.
Article reminds us that in 9/20, CDC issued an order that non-paying tenants cannot be evicted in most situations. Serious penalties involved.
The extreme rationalization to grab this power was shut down by a federal judge on 5/5/20.
