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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>> <b>On Behalf Of </b>Stathis Papaioannou </p><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div><p class=MsoNormal>On Sat, 9 May 2020 at 01:45, spike jones via extropy-chat <<a href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p></div><blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0in'><div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'> >>…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.<o:p></o:p></p></div></div></blockquote><div><p class=MsoNormal>>…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. <o:p></o:p></p></div></div></div><p class=MsoNormal>-- <o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal>Stathis Papaioannou<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Hi Stathis,<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>As I recall you are from Australia. I don’t know how it works there, but in the states, the federal government doesn’t have the authority to demand the economy shut down: that decision is on the state governors. Most of them have stayed closed, but there are a few states such as California which realize it is now open up, like it or not. Today I noticed the traffic is way up, and the construction guys are back. Schools stay closed. I have little doubt you are right: plenty of businesses will never reopen, and many of those who do will struggle to stay afloat. We will be feeling the effects of this for years to come, regardless of what we do.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>spike<o:p></o:p></p></div></div></body></html>