Realistically, how long can the country and the economy stay closed?

[kentuck]

Before it collapses like a Third World coup?

How long before the people become impatient and commit mutiny against the government?

Or what is left of the government?

What percentage of people need to be tested? Is 100% totally unrealistic? Should employees that return to work be the first to be tested? They need a plan.

I do not think the status quo can hold much longer?

[Hoyt]

1. I suggest watching Dr. David Katz's segment on Bill Maher's show for some answers

even if you don’t agree with everything.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1017578893

[SoonerPride]

2. 80% of the country is still employed and working.

This is the economy.

Take out food.

Working from home.

Gone for the next two years are sporting events and concerts and large crowds.

They can throw open the doors to malls and theaters and whatever else you want.

But this is what you will have.

20-30% unemployment because certain types of jobs aren’t coming back for years. If ever.

The world fundamentally changed last month.

There is no going back to what it was without a vaccine.

This is the economy.

[kentuck]

3. What percentage do not work at all?

Is it about 35% of the total population?

[Blue_true]

13. What are the 29-30% of jobs that may vanish?

I don't see that, though I am not saying that you are wrong.

I my home state of Florida, the vast majority of jobs require that people go in to work, even banking and real estate jobs. We really don't have a large financial services footprint (investing money, financial consulting, ect). We don't have many technology jobs outside of the Disney influenced ones around Orlando. We have emerging medical technology and energy technology efforts spurning around Gainesville and Tallahassee and Orlando, but they are insignificant when compared to places like Silicon Valley, Seattle, LA, Boston, Northern Virginia, but even those industries require that most employees go in to work.

[Alex4Martinez]

4. Halve the military budget. Go to a 30 hour week. There, I fixed it.

Reverse the tax cuts for the rich, increase the minimum wage, go full on single payer.

Give everyone without a job work to do by decreasing hours of others but make sure pay stays the same.

Redistribute wealth, we need to do that and stop thinking we can't or shouldn't.

[kentuck]

5. +100

[Alex4Martinez]

8. Some of the better articles I read are about how NOT to go back to the old way things were.

If ya know what I mean!

[kentuck]

12. I think a good place to start is with the returning workers.

They should be guaranteed a test and guaranteed healthcare, totally covered if they catch the virus, and other benefits.

In a way, this has been like a nation-wide strike in many ways.

[Alex4Martinez]

16. I fully agree.

Put people back to work, provide free testing and care and just keep it that way.

Past all the losses, there are a multitude of benefits to be realized at the other end of this.

More telecommuting, less traffic, less driving, better educational functions, maybe better working conditions.

We really need to undo the tax breaks, things were better under Nixon for pity sake, top marginal tax rate-wise.

We all remember this one:

[appalachiablue]

21. Kaboom! Welcome to DU

[diva77]

22. +1000 This!!

Exactly!

[I_UndergroundPanther]

23. Eggzactly

Then abandon capitalism which is a brutal sociopathic system that undermines the very empathy that makes us humane.

Get rid of billionaires.

[ms liberty]

26. Great ideas! I would add take up Liz Warren's plans for SS

Lower the full retirement age to 60, eliminate the cap or raise it quite a bit, and increase monthly payments.

[Doodley]

6. We can''t keep the country closed for month after month after month. People are

starving to death. There are millions who don't qualify for help. Suicides will skyrocket. Businesses will never recover. How many trillions can we keep spending? Social unrest could become very ugly.

100% testing is not unrealistic. It needs to be done. Those who have recovered can be the first to get back to work.

A half-hearted reopening of states will only result in an explosion of cases. Mass testing is needed. Regular testing. Should have been happening from the start. Would have saved many lives and avoided being where we are.

[Blue_true]

15. One thing that may help majorly is strongly suggesting that everyone

wear a mask in public. The efforts there have been half assed. That and universal testing is the only thing that will allow us to reopen halfway safely.

[Doodley]

17. Yes! Trump has truly fucked up mask wearing. The Surgeon General declaring masks do nothing, Trump

refusing to ever wear a mask, telling a reporter to take off her mask. This is pathetic and it all costs lives.

[Blue_true]

18. What masks do is limit transmission from infected people to people that are not infected.

If the masks are worn properly and cleaned or safely discarded each day, the number of new infections would quickly drop. Also, driving home that people need to wash their hands always after coming in from the public is important also.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

24. Why do we have to play by the rules

Psychopaths want us to play by?

Why not step outside thier systems?

[Iggo]

7. The economy is not closed. It's just shitty.

[Blue_true]

9. It can't stay closed.

I believe that everyone agree on that. The issue is the safest way to reopen it.

I really believe that a true leader would have already done two things:

1. Made testing widespread and free.

2. Would be wearing a mask in public and encouraging all Americans to wear masks.

I think that with testing and widespread use of masks, we can have a reopening without that turning into a disaster.

[brush]

10. You are right of course. This is a cataclymic, horrendous, disastrous, historic, life changing...

catastrophe and we end up with the biggest, Dunning-Kruger fuck-up in the nation's history in the White House. He totally bungled the response with his "democratic hoax" bullshit and here we are.

We and South Korea had out first virus cases around the same time and they immediately began testing, treating and isolating and they are way on the downside of the wellness curve. Our death total is still increasing everyday.

We are so screwed as this is nation-changing, and it's nowhere near an end.

Violence will not surprise me as food gets scarce, no money and unemployment either increases or people go back to work too soon and deaths increase dramatically.

[Initech]

20. Except we didn't report the cases the same day as South Korea!

The LA Times revealed that the first death of COVID was on Feb. 6th - 20 days earlier than South Korea's first. We had it before they did, and we did nothing. We did less than nothing.

But you are right about that we're stuck with the biggest shit show of a president that would ever dare call himself a leader while we're stuck in this mess.

[brush]

27. Yes, trump's inept dawdling becomes even clearer with the earlier reports.

[Ferryboat]

11. Follow Canada's example

Pay everyone 2k a month to stay home. Slow roll opening. Large gatherings are not going to happen.
Life is NOT going to be going back to what is was before.

Things have changed. Think about it . Adjust your expectations.

[SheltieLover]

14. This!👆

👍

[FreeState]

19. Agreed - this isn't a one way or the other option

It’s a new world. Our economy is man made, we can break the rules and reinvent it to something that works with reality (for once).

[I_UndergroundPanther]

25. This!!!

Rec it × a million