Tattling in the Time of Pandemic

I've been reading about Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti's recent announcement in which he encouraged residents to "snitch" (his word) on non-essential businesses that aren't complying with requirements to shut down during this Covid 19 crisis. The good mayor even said something about a reward for such snitching, though details are sketchy.

A cursory Google search on this story so far shows only "right wing" media reporting on this story (I use scare quotes because you never read about other media outlets being labeled as left-wing).

A closer look takes me to a Google Doc form provided by the City of Los Angeles which allows people to report so-called non-essential businesses who are violating the stay-at-home order. I don't see any such form for "snitches" to report regular people who, for example, are walking outside without a mask or something. Let's hope it doesn't get to that point.

Yes, we're scared. Most of us alive today have never experienced something so monumentally terrifying as this once-in-a-century global pandemic. So we're willing to temporarily suspend some--no, many--personal liberties.

But how far do we want to go, not just personally but societally? The fact that this story is apparently only alarming people on the right is telling. Let's hope that changes and more people--left and right--sound the alarm.

Like the opening of Pandora's Box, something like this--"snitching" on our fellow citizens, even for a supposedly good cause--once it's accepted by the community, could easily mutate into a society of real "snitches." This is apparently happening today in parts of Europe: they're called "Corona-Snitches" (link in comments).

Free societies who accept such policies do so at their peril.

******

For Further Reading

"Corona-Snitches Thrive in Lockdown Europe" (Politico)

More Random Thoughts: Government Paychecks in a Pandemic

Another thing. 

I don't want the government to send me any money. 

Nor do I want it to forgive student debt in its attempt to address the economic tsunami that's on the horizon. 

If the government's going to start issuing checks, I'd much rather it focus on small businesses, helping them weather this storm and come out on the other side or providing cash to hourly employees who have been let go. Or come up with creative ways of mitigating the pain broadly speaking for some of these small business. For instance, in one article I read the other day, the authors suggested the government shouldn't be writing checks to everyone. Rather, it could issue debit cards which could be used after this is over, once we come out on the other side, when we all emerge from our caves and look around to see what's left (assuming we emerge, that is) 

The cards could only be used to boost the economy, focusing only on those businesses that we shut down (by government decree in the interest of slowing down the spread of the contagion). When the restaurants and the theaters and the amusement parks and the bars and the concerts and the caterers all put up their shingles again, consumers could use the cards for only for these venues. In other words, we couldn't use the cards to buy a new couch or something. This would have the effect not only of injecting cash back into economy down the road, but also would serve as a sort of guarantee to lenders (now) that money would be coming back later. 

I really like that idea. I like it when people start to think rather than react.

Random Thoughts: Coronavirus Pandemic 2020

Random thought. 

Say we go two more months of social distancing, confinement, shelter-in-place, business and restaurant closures, school closures, cancellation of sporting and cultural events, government distribution of checks to individuals and families, job losses, businesses shuttered. 

And then the curve flattens, we breathe a sigh of relief, start to return to some semblance of normalcy. 

And then, come fall, this virus returns. 

What then? Lather, rinse, repeat? 

You may say I’m a dreamer and you'd be correct. This is a nightmare. 

Are we as a society really prepared to exist like this long-term? There will be another virus, then another. And now that our response to this one has been so fierce, I can’t imagine future responses being anything less. And our lives will never be the same. 

Someone will chide. What choice did we have? 

Does anyone think they know? Does anyone know for sure? 

C.S. Lewis wrote in an essay called, “Is Success Possible? Willing Slaves of the Welfare State,” that a caged animal isn’t hungry. That’s the trade-off, I think. We’re so afraid. Terrified of this stalking monster. Cage me, and I’ll be safe. 

I’ve offended some of you, I know. But someone somewhere among my friends 
on Facebook said we should be writing our thoughts during this terrible time. 

And so I have. And I'll continue. 

Sorry in advance to all who will say, "Yeah but . . . " 

I know the "Yeah, but . . . " 

I already know who you are. And I'm among you saying it. 

But have we really thought this through? 

*** 

A few reads (sorry if they're behind a paywall).

"Is Our Fight Against Coronavirus Worse Than the Disease?" (David L. Katz, New York Times, March 20, 2020). 

Comments: 

The author is the founding director of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center. I listened to an interview with him when the article appeared. He admits he writes against his own interest, having family members who are high risk. He also regrets taking a position that differs from his colleagues.

"Such is the collateral damage of this diffuse form of warfare, aimed at 'flattening' the epidemic curve generally rather than preferentially protecting the especially vulnerable. I believe we may be ineffectively fighting the contagion even as we are causing economic collapse."

He asks, "When does the society-wide disruption end?"
He answers: "We just don’t know. We could wait until there’s an effective treatment, a vaccine or transmission rates fall to undetectable levels. But what if those are a year or more away? Then we suffer the full extent of societal disruption the virus might cause for all those months. The costs, not just in money, are staggering to contemplate."

He has suggestions.

Is it too late to implement them?

This from the Wall Street Journal editorial board: