This thread is for serious ideas about how to simultaneously increase economic output without at the same time increasing spread of the virus.
Clearly to do this we must enable production but maintain physical isolation of infected and non-infected persons.
The issue of a collapsing economy is not trivial. Trump and others are absolutely right to be concerned. A depression will cost lives just as the virus will. Likewise the virus spreading exponentially will sabotage the economy even without social distancing. There is no black/white solution here. You can't just turn the economy on and let people die, the economy can't run if people are dying everywhere. People can't work if they are in hospitals. People can't buy goods if every spare dime is devoted to the recovery of a loved one and a significant percentage of the work force is on emergency family leave etc to handle the emergency.
So we can't abandon social distancing to recover the economy. Neither can we live without and economy for 2 years while we wait for hoped for treatments and/or a vaccine.
We need ways to do both, at the same time. We need to produce and buy goods without breaking down the isolation we've created that prevents disease spread.
Some things we are already doing - we are leveraging the internet to order goods, ordering out food to help restaurants survive, wearing masks when we have to go out, washing everything. Many of us are "working from home". Many of our industries are computer based, and we can do that often at home. But we need ways to keep factories going, food processing plants runnnig, distribution services functioning.
So this thread is about creative ideas that will allow businesses to open up while maintaining the separation required to limit disease spread.
Anyone have ideas? Maybe we could start just by trying to come up with a list of the sorts of critical economic areas that are seriously hampered by the shutdown.
(do not even bother to post if your 'idea' is to just go back to life as it was before covid)
Clearly to do this we must enable production but maintain physical isolation of infected and non-infected persons.
The issue of a collapsing economy is not trivial. Trump and others are absolutely right to be concerned. A depression will cost lives just as the virus will. Likewise the virus spreading exponentially will sabotage the economy even without social distancing. There is no black/white solution here. You can't just turn the economy on and let people die, the economy can't run if people are dying everywhere. People can't work if they are in hospitals. People can't buy goods if every spare dime is devoted to the recovery of a loved one and a significant percentage of the work force is on emergency family leave etc to handle the emergency.
So we can't abandon social distancing to recover the economy. Neither can we live without and economy for 2 years while we wait for hoped for treatments and/or a vaccine.
We need ways to do both, at the same time. We need to produce and buy goods without breaking down the isolation we've created that prevents disease spread.
Some things we are already doing - we are leveraging the internet to order goods, ordering out food to help restaurants survive, wearing masks when we have to go out, washing everything. Many of us are "working from home". Many of our industries are computer based, and we can do that often at home. But we need ways to keep factories going, food processing plants runnnig, distribution services functioning.
So this thread is about creative ideas that will allow businesses to open up while maintaining the separation required to limit disease spread.
Anyone have ideas? Maybe we could start just by trying to come up with a list of the sorts of critical economic areas that are seriously hampered by the shutdown.
(do not even bother to post if your 'idea' is to just go back to life as it was before covid)
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