I’m probably not the only one who feels as if they lost a year or more of their lives.
Students at all levels have basically missed a large percentage of their learning opportunities - some at an especially critical time. Millions of people lost their jobs. Some were able to work from home, but large office complexes and city centers were virtually abandoned along with the restaurants and bars that relied on the daily traffic from the workers.
Across the nation in every city and town, many restaurants and bars will remain shuttered or be opened by new owners.
People could no longer pay mortgages or rent on their homes or businesses. The government responded with “stimulus” payments, unemployment extensions and other benefits, but the need far exceeded what was provided.
And in some instances, the “stimulus” was just more money in the pockets of people who did not need it at all.
ADVERTISEMENT
That this pandemic occurred in the midst of a presidential election only added an overdose of conflicted people, agencies, political parties and other competing interests to our divided society.
The incoming president barely acknowledges the fact that if the outgoing president had not initiated the aggressive campaign to develop an effective COVID-19 vaccine, he and the citizens of the U.S. and the world would be in a far more tenuous situation than they are today.
Like Trump or hate him, we do owe him.
We speak of taking actions to slow or reverse global climate change. Putting the brakes on gas/diesel vehicles without a logical transition plan to reduce fossil fuel usage is lunacy. Touting electric vehicles as a green replacement isn’t logical. EVs produce on average twice the global warming potential and use double the amount of energy it takes to produce a fuel driven car - mostly for battery production.
Secondly, an EV is only as green as the electricity used to charge its batteries. I have read authoritative opinions that state we are not on track to being able to produce the increased amount of energy EVs may require. If we build them, will they be able to run?
I really like it when people who have money to burn start telling us how we should live. For the sake of the planet we are supposed to stop eating red meat. Maybe some entrepreneur will start a burger-of-the-month club if beef limits are on the horizon.
Heck, I heard last week that we have a shortage of chickens. That’s a pretty foul situation - a side effect of the pandemic. Beef and chicken are two basic staples in the restaurant and fast-food businesses; a reduced supply will result in price increases - higher than we have already seen.
The state of the economy is really troubling to me and a lot of my friends and acquaintances. Over the last few years, the federal government has been spending and spending and spending. And they are spending money that hasn’t come from taxes.
ADVERTISEMENT
If it hasn’t come from taxes, it either has to be borrowed at interest from many sources, including you and me or foreign nations; or in the worst case, it’s just being printed without any backing. And the more money that is being printed without basis, the lower the value of the dollar. The lower the value of the dollar, the higher risk of inflation.
How much of your retirement savings are at risk if our economy implodes?
Economists have predicted a short period of hyper-inflation. What if it’s longer? No one wants to be a Chicken Little in predicting further economic problems. But our economy is at the mercy of the federal government, and the federal government is in the hands of secular, liberal, progressives who denounce socialism but continue to take actions that are decidedly socialist in nature.
I go back to the most fundamental question we should all ask: Who will be the people who win if the United States’ economy crashes? It is no secret that you and I will be the losers.
That’s how I see it.
