The stock market plunge shows how financial giants and stock analysts view the economic impact of a corona virus epidemic or pandemic. Their collective projection is a bad omen.
Think about the epidemic in real terms, and how it’s contagion will affect the everyday life of all Americans. Will people go to the workplace and risk infection? Will they travel in public transportation to get there? Will they lunch in their favorite crowded restaurant or delis?
If they stay home, what happens to the jobs on the buses, railroads, and airlines? Or those in restaurants?
What about doctors, nurses, hospitals who will care for us? What about the 28 million Americans who have no health insurance?
What about the post office, UPS and FedEx deliveries? What about the mechanics and cleaning people that serve these enterprises? What about school kids and teachers? What about janitors? What about supermarkets? What about our families and kids?
What about the military in barracks and on ships? What about the Pentagon, the Capitol, and the White House? And speaking of the White House, are we confident that the current resident is up to the task before us? Isn’t it daunting that he has shown not one scintillas of compassion for any group of Americans except homegrown oligarchs? What expertise does he offer? Pence? Is he kidding?
We were a nation that could take a physics theory and turn it into practice in 3½ years. And put men on the moon in six years.
Now we are faced with an enormous task of protecting public health here at home. In 1918, some 670,000 Americans died in the Great Spanish Flu pandemic. We’ve been warned, but are we up to it? Can we turn our attention from killing people in faraway countries and concentrate on saving lives here at home?
Will the president slash the obscene, 0ver-the-top military budget and put it to work against the greatest threat we’ve ever faced as a nation? Don’t hold your breath.
Scott Kimmich
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