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

[Stathis Papaioannou]

On Sat, 9 May 2020 at 01:45, spike jones via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

>
>
>
>
> > *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.
>
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> 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.)
>
>
>
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> >…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.
>
Government-mandated shutdowns are not the primary cause of the economic
downturn. Having a deadly contagious disease in the community would
severely damage an economy even if the government actively tried to
encourage normal economic activity.

>
>
> >…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…
>
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> 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.
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>
>
> Does anyone see any realistic alternative?
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>
>
> spike
>
>
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>
-- 
Stathis Papaioannou
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