>>I would cynically summarize this as: lockdown is economically unsustainable. We need to go back to work.

Why? Canada is giving every Canadian $2,000 every month. Why can't the US do the same while we let this thing subside fully?

Instead we're bailing out corporations, while giving everyone a one-time $1,200 check, while expanding unemployment checks by merely $600.

> Canada is giving every Canadian $2,000 every month.

No they're not, if you worked even one hour, you don't qualify for any of the $2,000. Your income must be zero to qualify for that program.

Because you probably want to eat. And you probably want the electricity and internet to stay on. And you probably want things to continue to be available. All of those require the economy to be functioning.

All those need the supply lines and critical infrastructure to stay functioning, which they can be even if the rest of the "economy" isn't.

What's needed is money for households to pay for them, which is the biggest concern at the moment, but which can technically be solved by giving households a cheque.

Many of the things currently shut down are part of supply lines and critical infrastructure in the long term. Eventually we're gonna have to print books and build cars.

Books and cars are not ideal examples to pick in my opinion, in the case of books because they're easily substituted by electronic media. In the case of cars because all car manufacturing in the US involves imported parts [1][2], so that industry largely depends on other countries' sheltering policies. Also because both are very durable. I have tomes from the 80s, and a friend of mine just sold his van from 1995 haha.

I get the point though, and it's a fair one, but the "eventually" is important to consider here. Eventually when? No one is arguing in favor of permanent sheltering, Implying that the only option is to reactivate the whole economy "soon", knowing that there could be adverse health consequences isn't giving the alternative options, some of which might be better for public well-being, the consideration they deserve.

[1]: https://money.cnn.com/2018/07/02/news/companies/auto-tariffs... [2]: https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.dot.gov/files/documents/20...

I'll claim the economy can function just fine with all the bullshit middle management and software engineers working from home. Let the essential people do their essential jobs at lower risk of catching the virus - and with less micromanagement.

Isn't it amazing that an absolutely massive privacy invasion that is called contact tracing is already accepted as _inevitable_ if we are ever to be allowed to step out of our homes?

Talk about cynicism.

> if we are ever to be allowed to step out of our homes?

In France, we need to fill a form every time we want to leave our homes. Any non-work related trip should be limited to one hour and 1km, at most once a day.

This was decided with no vote or concertation within a couple of days. It also applies to people who live in rural area. They even fly drones in the mountains in order to catch lonely hikers breaking the rules. It's crazy.

Worth than that, part of the population is getting obsessed about rule-breakers, as if lone cyclists suddenly became a danger for the nation. The police is flooded with calls of people denouncing cyclists, hikers, or joggers...

Funny thing, our president said in his speech that this pandemics shall not restrict our freedom.

> Worth than that, part of the population is getting obsessed about rule-breakers, as if lone cyclists suddenly became a danger for the nation. The police is flooded with calls of people denouncing cyclists, hikers, or joggers...

I've definitely noticed on Facebook, since the beginning of this, there's a lot of shaming of people doing X, virtue signalling, I'm doing this right, how about you? etc. There's a huge political correctness and peer pressure angle to the social distancing policies.

Most people seem onboard with this so far, but I think at some point, the tide will shift. There will be growing social unrest. We're a social species, we're not meant to live in isolation indefinitely.

Did they take inspiration from Italy? That's the same stuff we are subject to every day. And yes, even here we have DDR Volkspolizei-like behavior from people eager to "denounce" those who "break the rules".

The way this lockdown has been implemented is going to cause a lot of problems at the society level afterwards.

Contact tracing does not need to be a privacy invasion - the Apple/Google implementation seems very well thought out.

https://ncase.me/contact-tracing

This is what the current plan says. Once implemented, the implementation can always be tweaked. In fact it can be tweaked in the next deploy coming a minute after the first.

Do you _really_ trust Apple and Google? I'm sorry but I don't.

Australia and Singapore's governments are rolling out an app that allows them to track every person you meet with for more than a short period of time.

Why would anyone trust them to not abuse this data?

If they wanted people to volunteer information, maybe they shouldn't have repeatedly abused trust.

Singapore is often refer to as soft-authoritarian.

It's like choosing N.Korea as an example and asking why you should trust them with your civil liberties.

https://privacyinternational.org/sites/default/files/2017-12...

I'm honestly not sure what to make of the People's Action Party winning something like 80% of votes. That's a Putin level of popularity.