The COVID-19 Class War

 

Just a heads up about a Peggy Noonan column that’s right on the money:

It’s not that those in red states don’t think there’s a pandemic. They’ve heard all about it! They realize it will continue, they know they may get sick themselves. But they also figure this way: Hundreds of thousands could die and the American economy taken down, which would mean millions of other casualties, economic ones. Or, hundreds of thousands could die and the American economy is damaged but still stands, in which case there will be fewer economic casualties—fewer bankruptcies and foreclosures, fewer unemployed and ruined.

They’ll take the latter. It’s a loss either way but one loss is worse than the other. They know the politicians and scientists can’t really weigh all this on a scale with any precision because life is a messy thing that doesn’t want to be quantified.

The deep state denizens, or overclass, or whatever you want to call them, are reverting to type. Coddled all their lives, they want to hide under the bed when things get tough. Ordinary people want to carry on because they know what hardship is.

Published in Domestic Policy
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  1. Hoyacon Member
    Hoyacon
    @Hoyacon

    It’s too bad there isn’t some way to make this available for non-WSJ subscribers without violating copyright.  This is the sometimes-annoying Ms. Noonan on her game.

    • #1
  2. Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… Member
    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio…
    @ArizonaPatriot

    I’m glad that Noonan is helping to spread this message.  To me, this conclusion was obvious about 2 months ago.  

    The WSJ paywall is unfortunate, as I’d like to read the whole article.  Roderic, does she advocate for this position throughout the article, or does she just explain it while not taking a position herself.

     

     

    • #2
  3. OldPhil Coolidge
    OldPhil
    @OldPhil

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    I’m glad that Noonan is helping to spread this message. To me, this conclusion was obvious about 2 months ago.

    The WSJ paywall is unfortunate, as I’d like to read the whole article. Roderic, does she advocate for this position throughout the article, or does she just explain it while not taking a position herself.

    Glenn Reynolds on Instapundit had a much longer excerpt from it at 8:57 this morning. Heck, it may have been the whole column.

    • #3
  4. Roderic Coolidge
    Roderic
    @rhfabian

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    I’m glad that Noonan is helping to spread this message. To me, this conclusion was obvious about 2 months ago.

    The WSJ paywall is unfortunate, as I’d like to read the whole article. Roderic, does she advocate for this position throughout the article, or does she just explain it while not taking a position herself.

    I’d say it’s more on the order of explaining the red states to her pals in the swamp and admonishing them about their lack of empathy and their name calling.  She seems to think the red states have taken a reasonable position, and this ought to be respected.

     

    • #4
  5. Jon1979 Inactive
    Jon1979
    @Jon1979

    OldPhil (View Comment):

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    I’m glad that Noonan is helping to spread this message. To me, this conclusion was obvious about 2 months ago.

    The WSJ paywall is unfortunate, as I’d like to read the whole article. Roderic, does she advocate for this position throughout the article, or does she just explain it while not taking a position herself.

    Glenn Reynolds on Instapundit had a much longer excerpt from it at 8:57 this morning. Heck, it may have been the whole column.

    Here’s the link to the longer link to the column that was posted at Instapundit earlier this morning. I just wish she’d bring this same type of argument to her NBC and MSNBC appearances, even if it threatened to cut off her NBC and MSNBC appearances.

    • #5
  6. Jon1979 Inactive
    Jon1979
    @Jon1979

    Roderic (View Comment):

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    I’m glad that Noonan is helping to spread this message. To me, this conclusion was obvious about 2 months ago.

    The WSJ paywall is unfortunate, as I’d like to read the whole article. Roderic, does she advocate for this position throughout the article, or does she just explain it while not taking a position herself.

    I’d say it’s more on the order of explaining the red states to her pals in the swamp and admonishing them about their lack of empathy and their name calling. She seems to think the red states have taken a reasonable position, and this ought to be respected.

    …though the fact that the column is coming out a day after Andrew Cuomo announced he would allow Stage I reopnings in Upstate New York regions with low coronavirus case numbers shows this isn’t exactly Peggy standing athward the tide of history and yelling ‘stop’. This is more being a half-step ahead of conventional wisdom even in some Blue states, while talking to the hard-core progressive holdouts — beneficial, and it gets in a slam at an authoritarian drone like Gretchen Whitmer, but it’s not defying the feelings of her NY-DC media peers in the way a column like this would have helped on April 16 instead of May 16.

    • #6
  7. GeezerBob Coolidge
    GeezerBob
    @GeezerBob

    Just as an FYI, it would be helpful if included links were not to sites that require a subscription. What? I don’t subscribe to WSJ? The horror! But just how many furshlugginer subscriptions must I have, for crying out loud. At least I can read the excerpt…

    • #7
  8. EODmom Coolidge
    EODmom
    @EODmom

    Jon1979 (View Comment):

    OldPhil (View Comment):

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    I’m glad that Noonan is helping to spread this message. To me, this conclusion was obvious about 2 months ago.

    The WSJ paywall is unfortunate, as I’d like to read the whole article. Roderic, does she advocate for this position throughout the article, or does she just explain it while not taking a position herself.

    Glenn Reynolds on Instapundit had a much longer excerpt from it at 8:57 this morning. Heck, ciit may have been the whole column.

    Here’s the link to the longer link to the column that was posted at Instapundit earlier this morning. I just wish she’d bring this same type of argument to her NBC and MSNBC appearances, even if it threatened to cut off her NBC and MSNBC appearances.

    I’d say to her “Where have YOU been?”  And I would expect her to dilute her position to become unrecognizable when or if she’s asked about it. I wouldn’t call her principled or discerning. It’s been obvious from the beginning that this was a haves vs have nots (have jobs and resources vs the needs to work crowd) set up. The haves don’t care about the have nots.  They may or may not have policy or principles for why they don’t care but they don’t care. 

    • #8
  9. Doctor Robert Member
    Doctor Robert
    @DoctorRobert

    EODmom (View Comment):
    It’s been obvious from the beginning that this was a haves vs have nots (have jobs and resources vs the needs to work crowd) set up. The haves don’t care about the have nots.

    Truer words were never written.

    • #9
  10. RushBabe49 Thatcher
    RushBabe49
    @RushBabe49

    That paywall is helping the Wall Street Journal stay alive in the era of disappearing newspapers.  Print journalism is fast disappearing, and they still publish six days a week.  And now, even the online versions of newspapers are suffering due to the reduction in advertising (the first expense that struggling businesses reduce or eliminate in a crisis).  The New York Times has its own paywall now.

    • #10
  11. Gary Robbins Member
    Gary Robbins
    @GaryRobbins

    RushBabe49 (View Comment):

    That paywall is helping the Wall Street Journal stay alive in the era of disappearing newspapers. Print journalism is fast disappearing, and they still publish six days a week. And now, even the online versions of newspapers are suffering due to the reduction in advertising (the first expense that struggling businesses reduce or eliminate in a crisis). The New York Times has its own paywall now.

    This was a great article by Peggy Noonan, and thank you for the link at Comment #5.  I have a number of comments.

    I agree with Peggy Noonan entirely.  I am a “have.”  Another family law attorney sheepishly admitted and agreed with me that he was making more money now than before COVID-19.  (I hope that that will continue.)  I am able to practice law on the telephone.  I have a Purell dispenser in the office.  I have clients wear a mask if they come to the office.  I can go into the Courtroom if I wear a mask.  I can now go out to eat and be served by wait staff who are wearing masks.  I go grocery shopping with a mask on.  But when I don’t have any clients in my office, I don’t wear a mask, and the building is locked so that any unmasked person must call a tenant to be let in.  I qualified for a PPP loan and it was funded.  (I gave both of my staff a bonus equal to two extra paychecks over the next four months for holding down the fort while I was caring for my mother, and for keeping us going.  I spread the wealth with my staff and my church.)

    There was a bug with the PPP application process which I could not figure out.  I emailed the Bank of America and said that I was their worst nightmare, a “boomer lawyer with ADHD” who demanded in writing the reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) that a living person help me with the process.  The Bank of America called the next day, and walked me through the process.  My my loan was approved.  As a “have” I figured out how to force the Bank of America to give me individual attention.  But how many “have-nots” know how to do this?

    I think that the best podcast on COVID-19 was the Friday, May 15th interview with Paul Romer on The Dispatch Podcast.  A strong testing protocol of testing everyone every two weeks would be hugely cost-effective, and could get us all back to work almost immediately.

    One last point.  The cost of the New York Times is $52 a year and the Washington Post is less than that.  I hope that the day comes soon when the Wall Street Journal has a more reasonable cost for online access.

    • #11
  12. OldPhil Coolidge
    OldPhil
    @OldPhil

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):
    A strong testing protocol of testing everyone every two weeks

    Oh yes, that’s certainly feasible.

    • #12
  13. Gary Robbins Member
    Gary Robbins
    @GaryRobbins

    OldPhil (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):
    A strong testing protocol of testing everyone every two weeks

    Oh yes, that’s certainly feasible.

    The cost of that is nominal compared to the cost of shutting down the economy.  Please listen to the May 15th Dispatch Podcast.

    • #13
  14. OldPhil Coolidge
    OldPhil
    @OldPhil

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    OldPhil (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):
    A strong testing protocol of testing everyone every two weeks

    Oh yes, that’s certainly feasible.

    The cost of that is nominal compared to the cost of shutting down the economy. Please listen to the May 15th Dispatch Podcast.

    330 million people every two weeks? Please don’t be this way.

    • #14
  15. Gary Robbins Member
    Gary Robbins
    @GaryRobbins

    OldPhil (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    OldPhil (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):
    A strong testing protocol of testing everyone every two weeks

    Oh yes, that’s certainly feasible.

    The cost of that is nominal compared to the cost of shutting down the economy. Please listen to the May 15th Dispatch Podcast.

    330 million people every two weeks? Please don’t be this way.

    Please listen to the Podcast, and then let’s talk.  

    • #15
  16. OldPhil Coolidge
    OldPhil
    @OldPhil

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    OldPhil (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    OldPhil (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):
    A strong testing protocol of testing everyone every two weeks

    Oh yes, that’s certainly feasible.

    The cost of that is nominal compared to the cost of shutting down the economy. Please listen to the May 15th Dispatch Podcast.

    330 million people every two weeks? Please don’t be this way.

    Please listen to the Podcast, and then let’s talk.

    No, I won’t listen to the podcast. I don’t care if the cost is zero, it’s impossible and more important, unnecessary. 

     

    • #16
  17. Zafar Member
    Zafar
    @Zafar

    From the Instapundit link:

    Since the pandemic began, the overclass has been in charge—scientists, doctors, political figures, consultants—calling the shots for the average people. But personally they have less skin in the game. The National Institutes of Health scientist won’t lose his livelihood over what’s happened. Neither will the midday anchor.

    I’ve called this divide the protected versus the unprotected. There is an aspect of it that is not much discussed but bears on current arguments. How you have experienced life has a lot to do with how you experience the pandemic and its strictures. I think it’s fair to say citizens of red states have been pushing back harder than those of blue states.

    Is that because the blue state working class is more protected (ease of access to unemployment benefits, less stringent cut offs) than the red state working class?

    Is anybody else surprised that across the rich countries of the world there are so many people just one pay check away from catastrophe?  That seems to be a significant class divide.

    • #17
  18. Headedwest Coolidge
    Headedwest
    @Headedwest

    Zafar (View Comment):

    Is that because the blue state working class is more protected (ease of access to unemployment benefits, less stringent cut offs) than the red state working class?

    Blue states have more government employees than red states.  And blue states have many, many people on various benefit and disability and Medicaid programs.  So they are, like white collar employees everywhere, less affected by lockdowns.  

     

    • #18
  19. Old Bathos Member
    Old Bathos
    @OldBathos

    The upperclass now has a vested interest in a failed strategy. We should have circled the public health wagons around the vulnerable from the beginning and let the rest assume a very marginal new risk. Instead,  the experts gave us a failed model, a largely ineffective solution and told us to shut up and bow to their diplomas and titles. And liberals indulged their usual fantasy of intellectual and moral superiority by making false gods of credentials and class sensibilities.

    With respect to climate are told to bow to The Science even though every ten years for the last Thirty we have had only ten years to Save the Planet from catastrophic climate change and must impose ridiculous costs and controls that would have no tangible effect on temperature (kinda like running the NYC subway for two months right through an absurdly porous yet disastrously costly national “lockdown” to continually spread the bug nationwide).

    Social science tell us that we should know there really are 57 genders or that the social science behind the disaster wrought Great Society is the pinnacle of both knowledge and social justice.

    Legal academics and big firm lawyers tell us to shut up and accept the Russiagate travesty as “the rule of law”.  

    Our major news organizations turn out a product so inferior to that of decades past that it is both stunning and pathetic at the same time.

    And dissent is a hate crime and a bar to permission to use social media.

    If there is any hope for the country there needs to be a bonfire of the vanities, a reckoning to bring back integrity, empirical science, honor and humility in positions of privilege. That would be the only upside of the self-inflicted COVID disaster.

     

    • #19
  20. Zafar Member
    Zafar
    @Zafar

    Headedwest (View Comment):

    Zafar (View Comment):

    Is that because the blue state working class is more protected (ease of access to unemployment benefits, less stringent cut offs) than the red state working class?

    Blue states have more government employees than red states.

    This article shows a fairly similar spread across states. (With a nice map.) I don’t know if it’s accurate, but if it is the % of Government employees in each state just doesn’t explain the difference in response.

    And blue states have many, many people on various benefit and disability and Medicaid programs. So they are, like white collar employees everywhere, less affected by lockdowns.

    It’s hard to find figures for this.

    Edit: though this might be a good proxy:

    • #20
  21. Al Sparks Coolidge
    Al Sparks
    @AlSparks

    I read the whole thing.  

    Of course she’s not the only one who has said this, but the WSJ opinion page is read by more movers and shakers despite or because of the paywall.

    Other than her nod towards social distancing and mask wearing, I agree with her.  If the hospitals are not being overwhelmed, why are we slowing the spread among the healthy?

    Since everyone is starting to face up to the probable that we aren’t going to get a vaccine, we should be letting this burn itself out.  The quicker the better.  We might have more education on who is vulnerable, and how they can protect themselves (which could include voluntary isolation).

    That’s a question that I’m not seeing addressed, except possibly by Sweden.

    • #21
  22. Headedwest Coolidge
    Headedwest
    @Headedwest

    Zafar (View Comment):

    Headedwest (View Comment):

    Zafar (View Comment):

    Is that because the blue state working class is more protected (ease of access to unemployment benefits, less stringent cut offs) than the red state working class?

    Blue states have more government employees than red states.

    This article shows a fairly similar spread across states. (With a nice map.) I don’t know if it’s accurate, but if it is the % of Government employees in each state just doesn’t explain the difference in response.

    It’s not just the number, it is the salary and benefits (and the degree of unionization).

    In any case, I have lived in deep blue states and red states.  Deep blue states have many more people tied to the government for their well being, in my observation.

    • #22
  23. Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… Member
    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio…
    @ArizonaPatriot

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    OldPhil (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    OldPhil (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):
    A strong testing protocol of testing everyone every two weeks

    Oh yes, that’s certainly feasible.

    The cost of that is nominal compared to the cost of shutting down the economy. Please listen to the May 15th Dispatch Podcast.

    330 million people every two weeks? Please don’t be this way.

    Please listen to the Podcast, and then let’s talk.

    Gary, there is no way that I am going to listen to the Dispatch podcast.  I can occasionally handle Jonah individually.

    What is the point of testing every two weeks?  Are we going to test, and then force anyone who tests positive to be quarantined for, well, who knows how long?  If that is the plan, then a lot of people aren’t going to want to be tested.  Are you going to force them?

    Or are we just coming up with some virtue-signaling plan to help people get over their coronaphobia?

    • #23
  24. Jon1979 Inactive
    Jon1979
    @Jon1979

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    OldPhil (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    OldPhil (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):
    A strong testing protocol of testing everyone every two weeks

    Oh yes, that’s certainly feasible.

    The cost of that is nominal compared to the cost of shutting down the economy. Please listen to the May 15th Dispatch Podcast.

    330 million people every two weeks? Please don’t be this way.

    Please listen to the Podcast, and then let’s talk.

    Gary, there is no way that I am going to listen to the Dispatch podcast. I can occasionally handle Jonah individually.

    What is the point of testing every two weeks? Are we going to test, and then force anyone who tests positive to be quarantined for, well, who knows how long? If that is the plan, then a lot of people aren’t going to want to be tested. Are you going to force them?

    Or are we just coming up with some virtue-signaling plan to help people get over their coronaphobia?

    If you do 330 million tests every other week over the remainder of 2020, which  has about 32 weeks to run, that’s 5 billion testing kits that will be needed to be produced between now and Dec. 31, and you’re going to have to round up the majority of the 330 million people every two weeks to testing centers, because if you have people do it at home, they’re going to make one pass at stuffing a swab up their nose, through their sinus passage all the way to the back of the throat and pretty much call it a day for any future testing unless they’re actually feeling sick.

    It’s an unworkable plan that would only be pushed either be someone who doesn’t understand the logistics involved, or someone who understands, but wants a bar for reopening placed so high few if any places are going to clear it.

    • #24
  25. EODmom Coolidge
    EODmom
    @EODmom

    Jon1979 (View Comment):

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    OldPhil (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    OldPhil (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):
    A strong testing protocol of testing everyone every two weeks

    Oh yes, that’s certainly feasible.

    The cost of that is nominal compared to the cost of shutting down the economy. Please listen to the May 15th Dispatch Podcast.

    330 million people every two weeks? Please don’t be this way.

    Please listen to the Podcast, and then let’s talk.

    Gary, there is no way that I am going to listen to the Dispatch podcast. I can occasionally handle Jonah individually.

    What is the point of testing every two weeks? Are we going to test, and then force anyone who tests positive to be quarantined for, well, who knows how long? If that is the plan, then a lot of people aren’t going to want to be tested. Are you going to force them?

    Or are we just coming up with some virtue-signaling plan to help people get over their coronaphobia?

    If you do 330 million tests every other week over the remainder of 2020, which has about 32 weeks to run, that’s 5 billion testing kits that will be needed to be produced between now and Dec. 31, and you’re going to have to round up the majority of the 330 million people every two weeks to testing centers, because if you have people do it at home, they’re going to make one pass at stuffing a swab up their nose, through their sinus passage all the way to the back of the throat and pretty much call it a day for any future testing unless they’re actually feeling sick.

    It’s an unworkable plan that would only be pushed either be someone who doesn’t understand the logistics involved, or someone who understands, but wants a bar for reopening placed so high few if any places are going to clear it.

    And it will make zero difference in the outcome. ( if desired outcome = fewer people sick.) Except that some people in the medical test etc crowd will make a lot of money. 

    • #25
  26. Zafar Member
    Zafar
    @Zafar

    If you test positive and self isolate you infect fewer others.  It’s expensive but the logic is clear. 

    • #26
  27. philo Member
    philo
    @philo

    Peggy who?

    • #27
  28. OldPhil Coolidge
    OldPhil
    @OldPhil

    Zafar (View Comment):
    If you test positive and self isolate you infect fewer others. It’s expensive but the logic is clear. 

    See @alsparks Comment#21:

    If the hospitals are not being overwhelmed, why are we slowing the spread among the healthy?

    Since everyone is starting to face up to the probable that we aren’t going to get a vaccine, we should be letting this burn itself out. The quicker the better. We might have more education on who is vulnerable, and how they can protect themselves (which could include voluntary isolation).

    • #28
  29. Zafar Member
    Zafar
    @Zafar

    OldPhil (View Comment):

    Zafar (View Comment):
    If you test positive and self isolate you infect fewer others. It’s expensive but the logic is clear.

    See @alsparks Comment#21:

    If the hospitals are not being overwhelmed, why are we slowing the spread among the healthy?

    The hospitals are not being overwhelmed because we are slowing the spread among the healthy.

    The logic is clear.

    One can question the assumption, but not the logic.

    (Also – when health professionals have to re-use single use masks or wear garbage bags as gowns it’s hard to argue that at least some parts of the health system have not been overwhelmed.  Fair call?)

    • #29
  30. Rightfromthestart Coolidge
    Rightfromthestart
    @Rightfromthestart

    Wow , every once in a while, she still gets it,  she may see herself as a translator to help us normals get through to the self-anointed betters. 

    • #30
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