I would argue self-reliance is mostly playacting these days. More so than minimalism. Sure you can learn to do basic things like cook for yourself or build furniture but the skills required to live a relatively modern lifestyle go way beyond the capabilities of one person. Are you really going to mine your own iron to smelt into steel and drill for your own oil?
All of modern society operates this way. It's called division of labor. In order for there to be a software engineer, there have to be people working to feed him, clothe him, build his house, produce his computers, extract energy to power everything, etc.
Are we spilling ink for the sake of the owners of these retail spaces? Do you think they are going to be any better off if these retailers just stop paying rent, and go out of business, instead?
Instead of grousing, the landlords should be petitioning for their mortgage payments to be suspended for this time period.
Oh, we are all going to pay for this crisis, one way of the other.
If burning everything to the ground because pausing the economy is somehow unimaginable, then a lot more people will be unemployed, a lot more businesses will go bankrupt, and to restart the economy a couple of months from now, a lot of tax money will have been spent in unemployment benefits, food stamps, and various stimulus packages and bailouts. That's my tax money being spent, given that I'm keeping my job and my salary.
If a pause means it takes less tax money to get the economy up and running again, to get everyone back on their feet, back in jobs, back to paying rent, back to getting salaries, then that's a good thing for me as well, even though it's "unfair" and "collectivist" and "socialist".
Now, I'm not saying a pause is the best solution I'm not an economist, I have no idea. I'm saying it's a solution, and you shouldn't dismiss it on reflex just because it's a collectivist solution.
Then your response is a non-sequitor - because your criticism can be levied against both the person endorsing that solution, and the person endorsing the status quo.
We can only hope so. Unfortunately animal agriculture as it currently exists is just as dangerous (e.g. chicken CAFOs breeding bird flu). IMO we need to rethink meat production altogether. Meat production needs to be environmentally conscious, health/epidemiologically conscious and at least minimally animal welfare conscious and the price of meat should reflect that all of that extra work is being done.
You are absolutely right. Viruses proliferate in large groups of animals in the conditions we keep them in. So much so that we routinely euthanize millions of animals to prevent viral outbreaks. Avian flu and swine flu both can mutate into global plagues. And we continue - business as usual.
I'll take a crack at it. I would prefer commercial rent abatements combined with commercial property tax abatements. The same would make sense for residential as well. Unemployment payments should be increased and restaurants should temporarily lay off staff as needed.
Also, college becomes less useful as more people don't take it seriously. Peer pressure is a thing. I actually wish that my peers in college were more studious as I'm certain it would have made me work harder and focus more on becoming educated.
Looking at the current situation (mishandling of coronavirus, imminent recession and a powerless central bank, field of presidential candidates) one wants to echo Szilard, saying that Biden ought to lose the election, but Trump ought to lose the election, too. It's impossible to predict what will happen in the Fall.
Yeah I think there's a balance somewhere and for me it's not 40 hours a week in an office. Maybe 20 hours in an office and 20 at home would be more reasonable. I would imagine different people will have a different preferred balance from 0 to 100%.
If you use the IRS standard rate of $.58 per mile as the cost of driving, then if you have a ~17 mile commute (each way), you'd expect to spend about $100 per week on average. That doesn't include the opportunity cost of your time or parking.
A quick googling suggests that the average driving commute is 16 miles so $100/week seems like a reasonable estimate (again assuming parking is free and you value your time at $0/hr).
No. That might be the perspective of the employer. Work from an employee perspective is about satisfying your own needs: financial, social, goal-oriented, etc. You obviously need to get some amount of work done to keep your job and meet your own goals, but not necessarily 8 hours of sustained effort per day.
