“Opening Up” Public Accommodations Nobody Wants to Use Can’t Save the Economy

The question of whether the economy should be “opened up” on May 1…well, it’s insane we’re even asking that question in the first place, but it’s also clear how much social distancing was voluntary and came before the formal orders were in place:

Pandemic Economics Rule #4: In a pandemic, the business of America is not business; it’s public health.

Without cash, people will die. Without loans, companies will die. Without a public health fix, people and companies will die anyway. https://t.co/so0thPKsNp pic.twitter.com/M9WcbtaEQT— Derek Thompson (@DKThomp) April 15, 2020

You can declare that businesses have the right to be open, but you can’t make people visit them, and that’s going to be a problem until people feel safe. That will require extensive testing, something Trump has zero interest in, so.

To go to the dark side of the Arianna Grande theory of politics, the question is how many MAGA chuds can be persuaded to put their health and the health of other members of their community at risk to own the libs. My guess is that it’s a lot easier to say that you’re willing to expose yourself to a deadly virus so that you can see Zack Snyder’s long-awaited Star Wars v. Batman v. Cinderella IV: This Time It’s Midnight on the big screen than it is to actually do it, but if this was a rational country Donald Trump wouldn’t be president.