[ExI] schools, was: RE: Even India and Haiti do it better

Fri May 8 15:44:06 UTC 2020

> On Behalf Of Dylan Distasio via extropy-chat
Subject: Re: [ExI] schools, was: RE: Even India and Haiti do it better

>…The irony here is that schools are probably the last thing that should have ever been closed based on both the economic hardships foisted on lower income families as a result and the fact that the risk of death for those age groups is close to zero…

Hi Dylan, ja, however the risk of students carrying that virus home and infecting their parents and grandparents is high.  I hear ya, and partially agree, but the school board recognizes the risk to the family members and is making decisions based on that.

>…I'm more concerned with the fact that unemployment is now at 14.7% in the US, and that for many low income employees, it now makes sense to keep collecting unemployment due to the fact that they are getting paid more to sit at home than they are paid to return to work…

Well right, however… that isn’t going to last very long.  The report coming out of California yesterday makes it clear.  Even though they don’t want to re-open this economy and doing so is risky, the state faces an even bigger risk if it doesn’t: the funding for unemployment payments will be exhausted.  It was never designed to carry 14% of the population (because it cannot.)  The state is borrowing money as fast as it can, but the investors all over the world are jumping on the opportunity to not lend California money.  Imagine that.

I anticipate that the state income tax will zoom way up, the sales tax will zoom way up pretty soon, the gas tax (all of these will be forced on the state) but not the property tax: that one is set in stone (fortunately for homeowners.)

>…The entire stimulus package has been a disaster between eliminating ACTUAL income as a factor in the unemployment payments and the fact that there were few conditions attached to the PPP loan program to prevent anyone who applied from taking advantage of it…

Ja, so what do we do?  I can imagine governments all over the world are facing pretty similar problems: they must realize that shutting down an economy is a really bad option, even if not shutting it down is also a really bad option.

>…There's a real possibility of a lost decade in the US now caused entirely by an over-reaction to CV-19, not the actual impact of the virus itself…

Ja.  My focus in on schools at the moment, for I can pretty much see how the rest of it must play out, whether we like it or not: shops and businesses will need to re-open forthwith, regardless of the risks.  Some businesses will not be back, plenty of them.  The newly-unemployed will be re-employed meeting needs that weren’t there before, such as grocery delivery.  That doesn’t pay enough to support the lifestyle to which so many have become fondly accustomed, and in many cases not enough to cover the mortgage.  So that will be really bad.

My focus is on schools.  

Does anyone see any realistic alternative?

spike

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