Bad ideas

    As the national government frantically tries to reopen the economy even without any plans  to ramp up testing for the coronavirus or trace the contacts of any new positively tested individual, Jamaal Bouie of the NYT thinks he knows why.  It's all about bad ideas.
     After 40 years of mostly republican policy to force an upward redistribution of wealth in this country, the pandemic and its economic fallout has forced the government into a defacto  social democratic path, aided for the most part by democrats.   After the initial pathetic offering of a one time payment of $1200.00 which is less than one month's rent for many Americans, the Congress passed a 2.2 trillion dollar bill aimed at small businesses and individuals who had lost their jobs.  In addition to the paltry amount offered by most state unemployment insurance, the feds will be kicking in an additional $600.00/week for at least 14 weeks.
   Republicans hate the fact people may actually be doing better under this program than they would have in many of the jobs lost to the pandemic, especially in the service sector.   When the shutdown ends, these people would possibly demand better wages from employers.  Hence republicans and the 1 percent who fund the GOP are desperate to get the economy going again before bad ideas concerning income inequality become entrenched.
    So we will head pell mell down the path of reopening the economy and new outbreaks of the pandemic will inevitably shut it down again.  People will not patronize bars and restaurants, nor will they travel in close proximity if doing so results in a death sentence.  A second and third reopening and shutdown will do permanent damage to an economy built on cheap labor.  The bad idea of social democracy could become embedded in our thinking going forward.