Be Careful What You Wish For…
There’s an old saying — be careful what you wish for. It might come true.
It’s never been more appropriate than today. Donald Trump, for example, wanted to be a powerful wartime president who made life and death decisions against a rapidly-spreading disease, and Republicans — for the most part — either encouraged him, praised him, or just sat quietly on the sidelines.
Now he’s making decisions not to order manufacturers to make ventilators and thinking about having some areas of the nation go back to business.
Good luck with that. Only his loyal radio and tv supporters can see pictures of an empty Times Square or downtown Chicago or small towns anywhere in the nation with stores closed and think things are going well.
Well, I can see his thinking. The stock market is lower than when he got into office. Unemployment claims have shot through the roof. There are too many stories about overcrowded hospitals, and the miracle cures Mike Pence promised haven’t gotten here yet.
And just not testing to keep the numbers down doesn’t seem to be working.
So, at the risk of being seen as negative, let me point out that there is a real risk in opening up the economy in low-disease areas of our nation.
Why not get people back to work in places like North Dakota or Wyoming or Montana where incidents of Coronavirus are still so low?
Well, those are big open states, without big population centers where the virus can quickly spread. Some members of Congress would probably agree with him that it would be a good way to cut down our jobless rate.
Well, I can give you one good reason why it won’t work. You could probably give me five or six. All you have to do is go in your computer and do a search. Just ask what the top industries are in those wonderful, disease-free states.
Well, a lot of them list oil and gas production as one of their top industries. If we could only get our friends the Russians and the Saudis to stop pumping out oil and gas, then the prices would go up and we could get a better price for the oil we can sell. That would be good for the economy.
Perhaps the President could write a perfect letter to those nation’s leaders and ask for a small favor. After all, they are his friends.
In a lot of those states, the second or third biggest industry is — hard to believe — government. Government regulators and government services are a big deal, especially when it comes to building roads and collecting taxes and running schools. Enough said.
Now, my favorite on the list of top industries in the states where he wants to rev up the economy is — wait for it — tourism. Yes, the best way to help our economy is to bring mobs of virus-infected people from New York and Chicago and other big cities to those wide open spaces, where they can fill local hotels and stay on local ranches. What could go wrong?
Maybe that’s why Florida is such a disease hot spot.
There is one other thing to think about as we contemplate the President’s wish list. One more common link in the economy of all those states where the disease count is (at least for this week) still low.
Agriculture. We need all that food, of course, but you can’t just double the output of farms and expect all of us to just double our purchases at the supermarket.
Well, lots of us did double the amount of toilet paper we bought at our favorite big box store, and now those hoarders can go to their closet or their basement or to whoever they keep three or four or six months worth of toilet paper and feel safe.
Well, just one less thing to worry about, I guess. Or a mocking monument to stupidity. After all, real Trump supporters would just cut their Washington Post into small strips. I heard on the web that its a good way to prevent disease, or at least to keep from knowing stuff.
But, I don’t wish for that. I certainly don’t wish for that.
I know how dangerous it is to wish for something. After all, you might end up getting what you wish for.
Just like the President.
