Billionaires Want People Back to Work. Employees Aren't So Sure

[Arkansas Granny]

The billionaire Tom Golisano was smoking a Padron cigar on his patio in Florida on Tuesday afternoon. He was worried.


“The damages of keeping the economy closed as it is could be worse than losing a few more people,” said Golisano, founder and chairman of the payroll processor Paychex Inc. “I have a very large concern that if businesses keep going along the way they’re going then so many of them will have to fold.

President Donald Trump says he doesn’t want the cure for the Covid-19 pandemic “to be worse than the problem,” and some of America’s wealthiest people and executives are echoing his rallying cry. They want to revive an economy that could face its worst quarterly drop ever -- even if it means pulling back on social distancing measures that public health officials say can help stop coronavirus. These investors aren’t prizing profits over lives, they say, they’re just willing to risk some horrors to avoid others.

“You’re picking the better of two evils,” said Golisano, who wants people to go back to their offices in states that have been relatively spared by the coronavirus, but remain at home in hot spots. “You have to weigh the pros and cons.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2020-03-25/billionaires-want-people-back-to-work-workers-aren-t-so-sure?__twitter_impression=true

[lunatica]

1. People dying is "the better of two evils"

except only one of those two evils keeps him rich.

Gee. I wonder which evil is the one he’s willing to enact?

[Newest Reality]

2. Ah,

Let them it dividends and options.

They should fall on their swords in this, which is the noble thing to do when you fail to be prepared for an emergency and expect to get a mouthful of tit, provided by we taxpayers, to suck on when you put your money into stock buybacks, etc., rather than resiliency.

Instead, we unwashed masses and useless eaters are expected to die out of loyalty to what, oh great and powerful Captains of Industry.

We'll see about that.

[BeyondGeography]

3. "Some of them will get sick, some may even die, I don't know."

Yes, that’s an actual quote.

[tnlurker]

4. And how do stupid people get to be billionaires in the first place

“You’re picking the better of two evils,” said Golisano, who wants people to go back to their offices in states that have been relatively spared by the coronavirus, but remain at home in hot spots. “You have to weigh the pros and cons.”

This is a great way to turn non-hot spot states into hot spot states.

[pat_k]

5. "states that have been relatively spared by the coronavirus" - Sparse testing does not "spared"

Failure to detect is not the same as "spared."

Until every state is testing at the same, or greater, rates than WA and NY, we have ABSOLUTELY no idea where these "relatively spared" areas may be.

I'm not saying there won't be regions that are "relatively spared." I'm just saying you can't use numbers based on testing rates that are so pitiful they are useless to identify them.

Right now WA and NY have tested 40-50 per 10,000 and are adding about another 5 per 10,000 per day -- a rate many times greater than any other state.

[LizBeth]

6. As these owners will be sitting at home, protected.

[Bluesaph]

7. Testing is the answer!

If big bosses want people back at work they should demand Trump try and get more tests, even from WHO. Test people before letting them go back to work. If they already had it, they are free to go back. If they have not and are vulnerable then stay home. And if they do not currently have it, then still isolate so they don’t get it.

[Hotler]

8. Mr. Golisano, that kind of talk is what helped to spark the French revolution.

Be careful, some out of work union carpenters may start building a National razor on the Washington Mall for your next shave.