I'm happy I have rental income, but if this continues, how are my tenants supposed to pay their rent?
I'm happy to say that I'll make it through this, but just mathematically, there going to be a lot of people suffering, basically no matter what happens. I see no way around that, assuming the services that have been mandated to be closed, remain closed.
If the quarantine rules and recommendations are not taken seriously - or possibly even codified into law - more people will die of the coronavirus, but if a strong and effective [and potentially medium- to long-lasting] quarantine is implemented, there will be a large and growing economic cost.
Someone on here said that this is sort of proving how dependent we are on debt in terms of propping up our society. Sad but true. This whole quarantine will also show how learning in schools is not necessary, as homeschooling is perfectly fine. There are also many jobs which will now be obvious that can be worked from home. It just makes you wonder how many job sites have massive buildings for employees to work jobs that could ultimately be done from home. Call centre jobs for example. This will allow certain businesses to completely change their business model, which will result in lower prices, if they can manage to completely change their business model to allow workers to work from home.
As I see it, there is nothing that Trump can do and get praised. If he enforces strict quarantine measures to the extent that he is allowed to, he will be blamed for the economy failing, but if he does not enforce strict measures [again, to whatever extent he is even able to as president, as I assume states have a lot of rights when it comes to these matters], then he will be blamed for a larger death toll. It's lose-lose, IMO. No matter what he chooses, his political opposition will blame him for the opportunity cost of whatever that choice happens to end up being.
It really seems like a lose-lose situation to me. I would not want to be a national leader right about now. Either more people die due to spread of the virus if businesses stay open and the economy is able to prosper a little more than it currently is, or more people will remain in quarantine with fewer people dying, but with the economy is harder. It seems like any attempt to balance the two will just make one of those two shift a little at the cost or benefit of the other.
Also, I find that the rules for this change every day. Only yesterday afternoon did the Wal-Mart stores in my community start limiting the number of people allowed to go into the store. I think within the last week, Southern Ontario changed it so that you cannot be in a car with anyone who does not live in your home. I don't think Northern Ontario has adopted that model yet [since we are more isolated, with a much smaller population], but for all I know, we already did, and can get fined for not complying. There are literally so many different cities/jurisdictions doing different things that I can't keep up with all of them.
I want to apply "common sense", as my father suggested - it's just hard to do that when even experts don't know very much about this virus, and recommendations literally change by the week, if not by the day...
Normally, by principle, I would have a problem with this sort of assault on our freedom of mobility. But being a homebody/hermit myself, I have literally noticed no changes to my personal life. In fact, I have been going out MORE during all this virus shutdown stuff, LOL. And fewer cars on the road is nice - so I'm actually having a good time through this. But on principle, I'm not so sure that these measures are appropriate...I guess as time goes on, and we determine just how damaging this virus is, we will know whether or not all of these measures are necessary.
Sales of Stephen King's novel "The Stand" were up 25% last I checked. I saw the DVD at Wal-Mart in the $5 bin, and bought it, LOL. My mom watched it, and liked it. I have not watched it yet, but intend to. The book is something like 1,000 pages long, so I doubt I would be reading it, heh.
Maybe this is just nature's way of pushing back against human consumption and overpopulation to some extent. If what we are doing is hurting the environment and animals, causing them to get sick in new ways, and causing that sickness to be passed on to human beings...well...I guess we can expect more of this, assuming it is nature pushing back on human population growth and consumption.
I myself am addicted to cheap Chinese electronics, so I absolutely contributed to this!! So you won't hear me complaining about China, as I am ADDICTED to cheap Chinese wares!!In fact, I will be buying a BRAND NEW smartphone tomorrow, which was MADE IN CHINA!!
