The Coronavirus

[pbrower2a]

(05-11-2020, 12:44 AM)Classic-Xer Wrote:

(05-10-2020, 08:31 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: It's a mixed bag, Food consumption is not in decline. Certain foods are less available if they are elaborate to prepare (many sea-food items) or more difficult to get. Some food-processing plants are in hiatus because of COViD-19 outbreaks. I'm going to give you the [citation needed] warning about planting crops. The problem with the oil industry is that production went up to meet what was then a rising amount of energy use. As production fell and fewer people commute, fewer people buy as much gasoline. 

(Don't argue with me on basic economics. My BA is in economics).

I am predicting that our food will be more expensive because the profit-maximizing behaviors that allowed super-cheap food in the last few years has suddenly become excessively dangerous to people who process the food. The transition from one market paradigm to another is't always perfect for the consumer.  

I'll argue with you about basic economics. Your BA in economics doesn't squat to me. I've been in business for almost thirty years. So, are the schools opening up next fall or haven't the Democrats made up their  minds about that yet?

That is the story of Man and Virus. There could be an opening of the economy in fits and starts. Open until trouble arises? Or are we more selective. Do we change some of our habits? 

Much is trickier than it used to be. Restaurants can survive as drive-ins, drive-throughs, and drive-ups.  The menu had better be attractive and easy to understand if it is on the Web, which is new to many mom-and-pop entities  

Quote:So, are we going to have a MLB season and help Detroit pay it's  bills and employ some of its people or haven't the Democrats made up their minds about that either?

I'm more likely to watch some minor league baseball in which the entertainment value is reasonably good. Buying a ticket to see a minor league team over its head playing among major league teams is like paying for a Cadillac and ending up with a Yugo.  Heck, I might make the trip to the Twin Cities to see your fairly-new ballpark. I;ve never been to the Twin Cities. No, I have no desire to meet you for any reason.   The Tigers are going to lose lots of 8-2 and 11-4 games next year. I don;t pay A money to see B movies.    

Quote:Yep, the lower the demand the lower the price until you hit 0 and production stops and there's a huge surplus of worthless oil and billions upon billions of losses in profits that government won't ever get its hands on this year and probably next year. You're about 9 trillion short right now. So, who is going to pay for your more expensive food? The Democrats? Do you have enough Democrats left who are willing to anti-up and pay more taxes and pay higher food costs and higher clothes costs and higher education costs and so forth?

The oil companies stop pumping oil (tough luck, oil-field workers, but that is how capitalism works). Firms go bankrupt, and the strongest businesses buy out the assets of the failures at the sorts of vulture sales that we saw in retailing at places like Radio Shack, Mervyn's, and Montgomery Ward. Plenty of commercial real estate is vacant for a long time, and tax revenues plummet. 

Humanity has adjusted to all sorts of things in different scenarios. The Iron Curtain closed many old and once-desirable markets and suppliers off to capitalist firms even across the infamous internal border in Germany.  I have some optimism about certain things. We are still social creatures (we have pet dogs because the human family has much the same structure as a wolf pack, and dogs are basically wolves that have learned that children are not meat) and will not become isolated hermits forever. We still believe in consumerism as a reward for our efforts. We still believe in technological progress as a way to do things better and with richer results. We will innovate our way into doing much that we did before COVID-19 and get away with doing that again. Who knows? We may learn to use helmets that allow us protection from the virus yet allow us to eat in sit-down restaurants and attend concerts and theater events. We may end up with a safe and effective vaccine that gives COVID-19 no further chance to infect and kill. We will have places to go because we will be able to do things there. As it is I have no reason to go to Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, or Indianapolis, the four closest cities to me that have 500 thousand or more people. 

And, yes, we are political actors. I expect Donald Trump to go down to defeat and take a large number of his spineless and corrupt enablers down with him.