The Sacrifice

I’m not going to quote any of this because it is pretty sociopathic, but this article is about people arguing that it’s just not worth the economic and social sacrifice to save a couple of million Americans from dying. At the same time I think it taps straight into a very American way of thinking. This is nation built upon people not sacrificing for anyone. So social distancing is going to be hard enough, but then you add on the complete collapse of a service based economy, the crumbling of people’s retirement, a 25% unemployment rate, and I guess I do wonder when Americans will just say that grandma isn’t worth it. Personally, I think that point will probably be when there are significant disruptions in the food and medicine supply chains but there are a number of points where people may be likely to revolt. I’d like to say that I don’t think it will happen, but I won’t at all be surprised if it does and that could be by June or so. Keep in mind that no one has actually sacrificed anything yet other than a vacation (excluding people actually suffering from the disease or their families suffering) and things like that. But that will change very rapidly as unemployment skyrockets and Republicans don’t really care.

The exception of course is if this actually works and the infections decline in a relatively timely manner. Alas, we don’t live in South Korea. If it doesn’t work (I saw my doctor today for an unrelated issue and she was not confident) and we hit a rapid peak by May anyway, what will happen?

Whatever happens, this will truly demonstrate the American character.