I don’t give a damn if this comes off cruel.
Anyone desperate enough to attempt to pretend the COVID-19 pandemic isn’t happening is basically volunteering to be a canary in a coalmine.
That doesn’t benefit anyone financially until this crisis is over.
The president’s own COVID-19 safety guidelines stress the need to work from home, and stay at home, to stop the spread of infection.
However, there have been protests in various states calling for the reopening of government in the past week.
I get it. You know, I don’t enjoy my urban hermit routine anymore than anyone else. And its damaging the economy.
Over 22 million people were unemployed in the past month. No one knows when children will go back to school.
Many businesses that have shuttered may never come back.
I get it, I really do.
However, just pretending that the COVID-19 pandemic crisis is a political plot to destabilize the government is an insult to the sacrifices we’ve already endured.
The protests have seemed to work to a degree. Multiple states will gingerly begin reopening soon.
I think this is dangerous. It’s an act that stresses the need of economy over the public health.
I don’t have enough money to gamble my health taking the guidance of politicians over that of scientists and doctors.
Chirping in the Coal Mine
We haven’t seen a pandemic encircle the world in such a dangerous manner like COVID-19 since 1918.
This situation is beyond serious.
President Donald Trump himself said that 100,000 Americans might die according to his task force’s most conservative estimates.
His economic trade advisor wrote a memo earlier this year warning that over 2 million Americans could die. And that the American economy could lose trillions of dollars.
What matters on a macro economic level matters to the common person, like me, on the micro level too.
Hospital workers don’t have enough PPE, masks, and gloves.
The American medical system can be overwhelmed in secondary and tertiary COVID-19 infection waves.
Also, airlines have parked their planes.
There won’t be mass gatherings at entertainment venues for at least a year.
Running outside now and patronizing a business authorized by a local governor seems like a big risk right now.
According to the president, a state must show 14 consecutive days of infection caseload decline before considering reopening for business.
All of the states reopening soon cannot produce such data.
The governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, admitted in a speech recently that Georgia will see a rise in COVID-19 infections after reopening.
I’m waiting for guidance from science.
If I get infected in a movie theater, spa, café, or some other business reopening in a pandemic, who will pay for my care?
People dying from COVID-19 are contagious and die alone.
My focus right now is to save money.
The only thing I fear right now more than COVID-19 is not saving enough money.
I am not going to chirp in a coal mine, and risk my life and financial future, until science says it’s OK.
Read More
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Allen Francis was an academic advisor, librarian, and college adjunct for many years with no money, no financial literacy, and no responsibility when he had money. To him, the phrase “personal finance,” contains the power that anyone has to grow their own wealth. Allen is an advocate of best personal financial practices including focusing on your needs instead of your wants, asking for help when you need it, saving and investing in your own small business.