Leftists obsess about income inequality. But no act has widened the gap between the rich and the poor more than the lockdowns going on right now. So remove your cranium from your rectum.
Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, said, “The majority of the up to 17 million households at risk of losing their homes this winter are people of color.”
Politico reports minorities and the poor have:
“been more vulnerable to job and income losses from the ensuing economic crisis, in large part because Black and Latino workers are over-represented in the service industries wiped out by shutdowns.”
James Parrott, an economist at the New York City New School, says what the United States is experiencing is “the most lopsided economic event imaginable.”
The National Restaurant Association says 40% to 50% of restaurants may go bankrupt in the months ahead if they don’t reopen immediately. Two of the U.S.’s most iconic restaurants announced they have closed their doors permanently after nearly 100 years of business. Gone are the 21 Club in Manhattan and the Cliff House in San Francisco.
As the hospitality industry dies, so do the jobs of the people working in these businesses. The workers out of work aren’t rich. About 15 million middle-income people work for bars and restaurants. All you Leftist high tech power brokers. Think about what you are doing.
Hell, Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and arguably the planet’s richest man is complaining the lockdowns exacerbate inequality. Amazon has been the world’s biggest beneficiary from locking down brick-and-mortar stores. The guy knows what he is talking about. He’s counting the tens of billions of dollars of added profits since lockdowns.
Lockdowns are crushing the little guy. The Democrats know this. Yet they are pushing this anti-freedom agenda. The 10 states listed by The New York Times with the strictest lockdown orders are California, Connecticut, Illinois, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Washington. What do they have in common? Democrats for governor.
Leftists always talk about following the science. But it is all talk and no science. All evidence of the last points to the scientific conclusion: Lockdowns do not work to reduce deaths. Contact-tracing studies show about half of those infected with the coronavirus got it despite staying at home. Only 2% of the transmission comes from restaurants. Almost none comes from outdoor dining.
The states that have not locked down their economy have lower death rates than New York and New Jersey. The unemployment rate for service workers in NY and NJ has skyrocketed to as high as 10%. In contrast, the red states, such as Utah and Florida, that are still open for business have unemployment rates for service workers as low as 4%.
Leftist politicians, professors, journalists, technology executives, government employees, preachers, teacher unions and wealthy suburbanites all support lockdowns. You see their incomes are not in jeopardy. They won’t wait in lines for a meal.
Would teachers support school closures if they weren’t getting a paycheck? How many people get tenure? Six-figure salaried university professors do. They have been inoculated from the lockdowns they cheer on. It just isn’t right. Somebody here is talking out of both sides of their mouth.
I don’t see Yentel and other “low-income advocates” protesting the lockdowns; do you? They think a government stimulus program will solve the problems of the poor and the unemployed. But handouts are no substitutes for jobs and paychecks. Millions will fall through the cracks in any case. We are giving the poor and unemployed a fish. We should be teaching them to fish.
There is an old joke about a boy who kills his parents. Then throws himself on the courts’ mercy. He’s an orphan don’t you know? The modern-day version of that story is Leftists, yes that’s you Anarchists, Antifa, BLM and Islamists; you have helped burn down the house. Now you piously complain about rising homelessness.
The poor and minorities are the first victims of anti-growth and boneheaded public policies. Tragically, we are once again learning that lesson. It really takes a Leftist to drive home a lesson about misery, poverty and oppression.
Why is the left all in for lockdown policies? These policies are doing the opposite of what they preach. Could it be that the Leftists are really the ones for “rewarding wealth, not work.” Perhaps the answer is that the left cares a lot more about power than the poor. Just think about it. Try a little common sense.