dpullum wrote:
The referenced "blue-collar perspective" was, perhaps, written by a very White-Collar Republican operative, not by an actual blue-collar worker.
Analogies are a good communications tool, to inform, confuse, or deceive. Here is an analogy from a nonproductive [synom for "retired"] person [me]. Letting the COV-2 burn itself out, sweeping thru and culling the week and immuning the survivors, is like having a massive forest fire vs "controlled burn." The massive burn would destroy many things along the way, while some would survive, most typical would present a barren landscape that is beyond the replanting capabilities resulting in land/mudslides, depleted soil, stram pollution, economic hardship, starvation and other disastrous effects. Controlled burns protect homes, land can be replanted and rangers are sufficient to control it.
Shutdowns and social distancing are presenting infection/death rates like the controlled burn. Controlled the medical community can handle the rate of influx of new patient care, and the morticians and casket makers can deal with the rate of deaths. If the virus rate of infection is controlled, then eventually one can get a vaccination to prevent their infection.
Letting the virus burn all the human fuel quickly would result in die at home. Yes, it would as the author suggests burn itself out ... much like the colorful black plague that killed fatalism leading to the dark-ages. Indeed, the color was a Somber-Black .... So all should party as depicted in Edgar A. Poe's "Masque of the Red Death." The highest and richest were not spared as death, hooded and Scythe in hand, knocked at their door.
When the workforce is depleted, when the workforce can not afford the products, then capitalism is hearing the toll of the somber church bell and will fail, falling into the cesspool of a hungry, desperate masses of people.
History has seen many society suicides ... where did the great societies of Central America go? After thousands of years ... gone. Why? Something triggered the fall, doubt, disease, or perhaps a stupid leader, and the faith in the social rules and collective capitalistic/socialism [group effort] failed. Our society is fragile, is based on a myth with smoke and mirrors and to survive with its weaknesses, a slow burn is needed, not a sweeping burnout.
The referenced "blue-collar perspective"... (
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When I read "The black plague Lead to the dark ages" I realized you don' know what you are talking about. The dark ages ran from about 400 BS to about 1400. The plague lasted about 6 years in the mid 1300's