Is America On The Road To Another Great Depression?
By Carole Hornsby Haynes, Ph.D. March 27, 2020
“’Emergencies' have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have been eroded.”– Friedrich Hayek
Americans are allowing government to make sweeping restrictions on our unalienable rights without so much as a whimper. Congress is enacting FDR-era entitlements and a stimulus package of $2.2 trillion that this nation – already more than $23.5 trillion in debt – cannot afford. The predicted fallout has a historical parallel.
The unconstitutional “shelter-in-place” policies imposed by local governments even on those who are not contagious could continue for three months, resulting in massive job losses, permanently shuttered business, bankruptcies, and wrecked lives of million of Americans.
The St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank predicts job losses could run as high as 30 percent. Goldman Sachs predicts a second quarter GDP loss of 24 percent. Former Texas House Representative and economist/lawyer, Matt Rinaldi provides perspective about these predictions, “... during the Great Depression, the highest unemployment rate was 24.9 percent, and the largest annual GDP loss was 12.9 percent.”
American political leaders – and those who support the draconian, freedom killing measures of government – need to consider what similar past government actions did to the economy of our southern neighbor.
Despite heavy criticism, the Mexican government is taking a largely hands-off response to the coronavirus. Past experience from the country’s shutdown in 2009 to contain the H1N1 – swine flu – pandemic that devastated the Mexican economy seems to be driving their actions. The Mexico News Daily reports:
“Authorities acted quickly at the time, shutting down public life in Mexico City and other parts of the country. The spread of the swine flu was swiftly contained and normality resumed within weeks. However, the response shaved a percentage point off GDP growth in 2009, according to some estimates, at a time when the economy was already struggling as a result of the global financial crisis. GDP ended up contracting 5.3% in 2009, the economy’s biggest decline since 1995.
“Now, according to a report by the news agency Reuters, ‘the gamble is straightforward: Mexico’s economy was stagnating even before the Covid-19 outbreak shuttered factories worldwide and the government has said it wants to limit economic damage by not over-reacting.’”
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has continued being out among his people, holding mass rallies where he shakes hands and even greets supporters with hugs and kisses. Mexicans continue to go about life as usual in the fresh air and sun, attending a large music festival in Mexico City and soccer games. At the time of this writing, Mexico has 717 reported coronavirus cases and 12 deaths. It is unknown how many cases are unreported.
Is the reason that large numbers of Mexicans are not succumbing to the coronavirus because they are outside in the fresh air and sun instead of being “sheltered in place.” Medical research has proven that outdoor fresh air and sunlight can kill virus germs. Low Vitamin D levels are linked to respiratory infections and a likely increase in susceptibility to influenza. Sunlight plays an important in synthesizing the vitamin D in our skins.
The U.S. has112,377 reported cases of coronavirus and 1,873 deaths in a nation of around 330 million people. With people being forced to stay indoors and out of healing fresh air and sunlight, the numbers could possibly go higher.
By way of comparison, during the U.S. 2018-2019 influenza season, there were more than 35.5 million illnesses with 34,200 deaths. Annually the U.S. has a high rate of illnesses and deaths from influenza yet there is no media hype or shutdown of businesses or population quarantines.
Perhaps American leaders can take a cue from our southern neighbor about not causing economic damage, and possibly even more illnesses, from over-reacting.
Our political leaders were all too willing to blindly follow Chief Fearmonger Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. He testified before Congress that the death rate for the Coronavirus is ten times that of the seasonal flu. Where were the scientific facts for outrageous Fauci’s claim?
Now it appears that Americans will have to pay more taxes to cover their new debt of $2.2 trillion.Given that the rate of unemployment and the GDP loss is predicted to exceed those at the height of the Great Depression, the question is whether the United States is spiraling into another Great Depression.