In March of this year, I was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in an unexpected way: I was summarily called on the phone and laid off. It was made clear to me that the reason was NOT for lack of performance of my duties, but the industry I was working in was closing due to the Pandemic, and there would not be any revenue for the foreseeable future, which necessitated some cutbacks on staffing.
I have spoken to many people who were forced to urgently seek new jobs in an extremely tough time to be job hunting. I keep asking myself: was this all necessary? How much of an impact will this pandemic have on world economies? Can we really survive another shutdown if it comes to that? Is it even legal for the government to close some businesses while others remain open?
Since the government-forced shutdown was the first domino, I want to know "how does the government have the right to decide if a business is essential or non-essential?" Do businesses have the right to seek damages from the government if they were forced to close while others remain open?
Does our market economy have the ability to right itself after taking a blow like this? Entire states closed down, unable to even make payroll, and with only the feds handing out money to tide everyone over? (By the way, the Payroll Protection Plan, or PPP funds are loans, most will probably have to be paid back, and besides, those funds were intended to keep employees employed, not prop up the business financially as they deal with the normal overhead, expenses , etc., WITH NO REVENUE.)
It appears that they do and they don't, if the recent case in Wisconsin is any indicator. Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers instituted a statewide shutdown in March, but then in May the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down the stay at home order, stating the state's Health Services Secretary had exceeded its authority. Not surprisingly, fear won out in the end; some local county governments decided to follow the shut down order at the local level, even though they were within their rights not to.
As we continue to hang on, we need to bear in mind that we are not in a sustainable position right now. We have people hanging on to unemployment in unprecedented numbers, preferring to "stay at home" instead of working. This is a great country but we need to get back to work. Continuing in this way is not possible, even if we wanted to.
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