Millions of credit-card customers can’t pay their bills
I drove by Target today and the lot was full. Target doesn't have any kind of social distancing policy so it was business as usual, no lines or anything. Literally across the street is my friend's small restored furniture store, which is closed because it's non-essential. It's a husband-wife who own it, and even with the loans they just got they told me they've only got another 3-4 weeks until their business will collapse, another 3-4 weeks after that and their personal finances will be in serious trouble. Sure they'd like to be in a better financial position in the first place, but that's kinda the life you choose when you restore furniture as a mom-n-pop I guess. I respect them either way.The question many small business owners (and their employees) are now asking is "Non-essential for who???" Because for millions of people, it's as essential as it gets.I started out believing lockdowns were necessary, but I've found myself drifting towards believing this is all complete madness, that politicians have failed to draw any distinction between reasonable health precautions in problem areas and unreasonable blanket policies that impose draconian, permanently life-altering measures on everyone. Maybe we really need the scalpel approach rather than the nuclear bomb. And in doing so it's clear that we're inadvertently creating much longer-lasting problems.