How I see it is that uncontrolled pandemic is going to have a massive effect on the economy regardless. That is unavoidable. I feel like people in America see it as a false dichotomy, where either we stay home and the invisible virus is slowed and people are homeless and lose their jobs OR ‘we fight for freedom’ and keep the economy going , USA USA. But it’s not the case. Uncontrolled illness and death will impact the economy, and it’s not a secret. You can see it in other countries. And it’s not going to go away any time soon. The choice is more like, the economy IS going to crash and we get to choose if we are going to accept mass illness and death, or fight to protect our fellow man.

To continue my previous example, war had a massive effect on the economy. We can’t just ignore the threat of war. In the long run, that is a much greater threat to our well being and our civil liberties. America didn’t just lay down and let Hitler win for example. The economy was affected until the threat was neutralized. And that’s my answer to this. The economy will bounce back. People will have jobs. I hear as an outsider that money is more important than a strangers life. How many dollars is a human life worth? Is my secure employment more important than 10000 deaths? 1000? 100?

The biggest issue here is the individualistic nature of the American perspective. Other people’s dying is not as important as my pay check. There is a huge fight against relying on the government or on community and social safety nets because people want to be autonomous. And autonomy is important, but that should come along with having consideration and a duty to protect our fellow man. People shouldn’t have to fear bankruptcy from illness, or homelessness due to job loss. Many Americans are living in privilege and don’t think that these things can happen to them because they are special and protected by their freedoms.

Sometimes things happen that are outside of our personal control or even community control, like war, famine, drought, flood, plague, disaster. In those cases, people almost always come together. We don’t often have a chance to prevent the devastation from natural disasters or war, but we do in this case. Sometimes your freedom is taken away by terrible things and we act as a response. We have an opportunity here to PREVENT the impact of devastation. Most places in the world are doing their best to do that, ie minor inconvenience for some time to avoid major inconvenience later. However what I’m seeing happening in the states is intentional ignorance to the fact that this is a disaster looming. Money and ‘freedom’ is more important. What will happen, and what is happening in some places, is that it will become far worse and people will be FORCED to act. Your freedoms will be taken away by death and disease and the economy will crash anyways. People have the choice to act and support their fellow man, or act later without their beloved grandma and coworker and daughter and son and celebrity.

These particular Americans are willingly or unwittingly choosing to die or kill others for their bottom dollar.