re: Here's a question for the pro-lock down crowd

Yes.

They did and they're still there. Since you apparently have no desire to actually discuss anything, you can have the last word.

Have a good weekend.

I'm a pro-lockdown person at least for the short term because I believe getting a handle on this quickly and keeping it from overwhelming the health system ... IMO the death toll is irrelevant; the spread is the problem ... is essential, because I do not think locking down is going to work long term.

I think there's a three- or maybe four-week window for these measures before people start rebelling and saying "we're done," and before the damage to the economy is completely irreparable. (We may be there now.) The notion of locking people down until there's a vaccine is untenable and would result in blood in the streets and quite possibly an attempt to overthrow the government.

And some of the governors and mayors in the big metropolitan areas where this is hitting hard ... although I know it's outside those areas too, hold your fire at pointing that out ... may differ, but I do not think there is going to be at the federal level any real stomach for compelling people to stay in line.

And it's basically going to be up to people to take care of themselves and take precautions and live their lives and what happens, happens, because I do not think saving every single solitary life is worth destroying the U.S. economy.

Someone will of course ask me "What if it was your family member who got the virus," to which I'll of course respond appropriately and emotionally.

The thing is, I have the ability to completely put aside every molecule of emotion when I look at the big picture, and to me the big picture is that at some point there's going to have to be an assumable risk and the needs of the many will have to take precedence over the needs of the few.

Of course if we tested all 300 million people in the country and quarantined the asymptomatic carriers, it would help get a handle on this quite quickly. But I don't think it's so much that there's not enough tests ... and I know there aren't ... as it is the attitude that it's somehow not kosher or a sign of weakness that Americans get involved with the medical system if they're not "really sick."

You may be right.

You can't compel people to be their brother's keeper. And IMO, although these measures again are absolutely necessary in the short run, I think there's some of that afoot.

And I'm increasingly hearing stuff from people who aren't so much interested in turning out the current occupant of the White House as they are in using this situation to restructure society to their liking. As in something I saw tonight about how this is going to (a.) swing the pendulum "from corporations back to people"; (b.) wind up with everyone working from home moving forward, no offices; and (c.) permanently lower the number of people working in the service and travel industries, which the pundit I was reading dismissed as dead-end jobs, and motivate them to seek 21st century tech jobs where, of course, you can work from home.

Run chicken little, run!