Now that we seemed to have more or less plateaued on new Covid cases across the country, collective focus is rightly shifting on how and when to "re-open" the economy. Surely, you'd think the Republican politicians who stand up for the "working man" will prioritize their safety as they re-enter the workforce? Think again!
Today, Mitch announced he will only work with Democrats on further pandemic relief if they pass his top priority of ensuring businesses have broad legal immunity from any employee lawsuits who become sick or die from Covid due to unsafe working conditions. While not an ideal externality, the threat of legal action could have forced employers to ensure proper precautions were taken before welcoming the full workforce back. No doubt it will lead to a wave of lawsuits, but OHSAA has dealt with that cottage industry for a century now. Instead, Corporate America is free to once again prioritize their bottom line, workers be damned.
Later today, Iowa Republican Governor Kim Reynolds announced that employees refusing to return to an employer due to unsafe working conditions will not be eligible for unemployment. Texas' Republican Lt. Gov later announced a similar policy.
And finally, our President cited the Defense Production Act to announce he will force the country's meat processing industry to remain open, despite the wave of Covid infections that have ravaged plants across the country.
These policies place all the risk and burden on the labor force, which has been a hallmark Republican policy for the last twenty years. Rather than ensure employers make the extra investment to provide more PPE, run additional shifts, reduce capacity, and take other measures that would put employee safety over profits, McConnell and Co. will ensure the corporate lobbyists get their pound of flesh. Unbridled capitalism backed by the GOP its relentless pursuit of higher stock prices will give those same Republican working class voters the privilege to live out their own Upton Sinclair novel and Die For the Dow. At least the libs will be triggered, I guess.
Your dumb. Whether you like it or not, we are all going to have deal with this virus. Going to the barber? Wear a mask. Going to Macy’s? Wear a mask. The workers will as well. Staying home won’t fix any of our problems.
You know what’s worse than the virus? Economic depression. That will kill more people than the virus itself, and the eventual drivers of long term economic growth such as population growth.
Dude, the economy will also suffer if thousands of people die. would you have one of the two shit outcomes or do you want to have both???
Not really if they’re all 80. (Mean death age 80). Barely shaving off 5-7 years.
Plus antibody studies showing sub .4% fatality. Quote me on this
you're*
The irony on display here
Dude, you are missing the point of the topic. The topic is not about "how do keep the economy shut down"? In a way, the topic is focused on opening the economy but at the same time, keeping the workers reasonably safe.
You're*
Pls fix
I agree that it is very shitty what those governors are doing but regarding the meat plants I saw Tyson already reported that it will just have to euthanize animals due to the halt. I say make the employers liable to keep a safe environment and provide proper treatment when needed but just get the economy running already. At least the truly essential parts. And trust me, having food is top priority.
We already know that COVID-19 has baby-tier mortality rates so just turn the economy back on and ensure there are funds specifically for treatment of any essential employees. There are already examples of even the most vulnerable being alright due to top medical care. This is a no-brainer if you ask me.
So we agree!
Thank you, I was unaware.
Things about this that people should consider - Employees in most of these front line jobs, in particular meat processing plants, are seasonal workers, immigrants, refugees and poor African-Americans. Exactly the population Fox News / Breitbart rails on every day. Recall the ICE raids in chicken firms in Mississippi last December - Most of the above employees aren’t rich enough to live in a second house by themselves or even own room To self isolate and most likely have their older parents with them - These jobs are mostly minimum wage and I won’t be surprised if they aren’t offered health insurance - Because these are obviously republican states, they didn’t expand Medicaid, so they probably have no health insurance coverage for themselves or family - After making sure these employees have been vilified with minimal standard of living for years, making sure their employers won’t get hurt is exactly how Republican retirees and rich ones who themselves won’t be going back to work anytime soon (eg ask a Trump donor buddy when he will fly commercial again) - How much of it is ensuring I get to eat chicken vs ensuring farm belt doesn’t revolt after already getting subsidy after all the tariff / trade war - well that’s easy to figure out - Note that similar defense production act wasn’t used for PPE when asked many times. Apparently it was a private business issue
this is one of many examples where the GOP lost its way. government intervention in private business is the antithesis of conservatism and free markets. forcing businesses to stay open when they don't want to is just as bad as forcing them to close when they don't want to.
We'd probably agree on more than you'd think, I was a diehard GOP voter not that long ago. But the older I get, the more aggressively pro-labor I become, and this is just the latest example of the GOP favoring its donor base over its voter base. But as long as they can distract Red America with guns, abortion, bibles, and triggering libs, they'll continue to get away with it.
the mental image of distracting people with bibles guns and abortion is hilarious
I meant to edit that first comment out because as I thought about it, it's not really true. have a great day bro, hope you're holding up well in this craziness.
maybe one day we'll get a federalist with compassion, until then, consider me independent
This makes me laugh but also sad because it’s true. I remember someone telling me the older I get the more conservative I’ll get. I registered Republican when I was 18. The older I get the more I have disdain for the GOP, and politics in general.
Yea, abortion, guns and the Bible are totally a novelty for GOP politics and that's why you left them. What a ridiculous comment
I get what you’re saying, and I would normally agree, but I think forcing meat processing facilities to stay open to prevent literal food shortages is a bit different man... if it was forcing retail, restaurants (eating out being a luxury as opposed to cooking at home), fitness centers, etc, then yeah it would be worse than forcing them to close. But forcing the backbone of our food production supply chain to stay open...? seems logical in preventing famine to me...
I am against government overreach into private enterprise in almost every example.
we have way too much in factory farming in this country, losing some grade D pork won't send us into famine. if a business owner wants to close down, that's their prerogative, not the government's. it's not like it's either smithfield pork or no food. it's smithfield pork or your local farmer or vegetables or legumes or other shit we have plenty of.
if we were in armed conflict, maybe you use government to prioritize production of ammo and machinery, but forcing factory farming when there's plenty of other food to go around? nah man, let the free market do its thing.
To be fair, conservative love for free markets is a relatively recent thing, think Reagan and Thatcher. If you go far enough, conservatives were at times mercantilists, protectionists or even statists, often at odds with the classical free market liberals that today we simply call libertarians.
Indeed, the marriage between conservatives and libertarians is almost over for a number of reasons.
when I say conservative, I mostly mean libertarian or classical liberal. small government, free markets, slow to change things (like the founding fathers designed), so perhaps my nomenclature needs work. those are principles that will stay with me regardless of whatever the parties call themselves.
I think this whole thing has been handled very poorly. I'm not sure if now is the time to get some people back to work. But for those who really disagree with this move, when should we be going back? Without treatment(s), which are many, many months away (if not a year away), we can't get the number of infected and dead to 0. Are we supposed to send the economy into something much worse than the Great Depression, or should we spend $10 trillion plus to get us enough runway to when there is a vaccine or real antivirals?
My issue is the priority focus to absolve corporations of any liability, thus forcing employees to choose between an unsafe working environment, or unemployment with no benefits. I want the threat of lawsuits to force employers to take necessary, reasonable precautions to ensure a safe working environment, same as they had to do in the pre-Covid world.
Contrast that with the proposal from AOC/Warren to temporarily ban mergers of over $100mm to limit job-related losses from the pandemic. Obviously this is DOA, would wreck our industry, and take away my livelihood among other things, but I can at least appreciate the sentiment.
The proposal to temporarily ban mergers over $100mm is absurd and reflects an enormous lack of thinking. Why are they spending time on this instead of pushing for more direct help to the unemployed, regardless of how they became unemployed (>99% of which would not be related to M&A)? What about companies selling to avoid likely bankruptcies (in which case most jobs will be saved instead of all of them being lost)?
When we have sufficient levels of diagnostic testing and contract tracing.
"So far, the United States has only performed about 4 million coronavirus tests."
"Dr. Anthony Fauci estimated on Saturday that the country is conducting approximately 1.5 million to 2 million Covid-19 tests per week."
"Bill Gates said Sunday that new testing machines and methods should soon be able to get the United States up to between 400,000 and 500,000 tests per day, though that's 'just barely enough for really doing the tracking.'"
Since the beginning, our biggest problem has been our lack of testing. Once that finally gets to a point where it can be rapid and widespread, and we finally have an effective contact tracing system, people can begin to safely go back to work. Until then, opening nail salons is moronic.
Thanks - makes more sense to me.
We've lived in a corporatocracy for a while now, no surprises here.
I know the Red Hats now hate Mitt Romney, but it's like y'all took his worst idea ("Corporations are people, my friend!") and married that with some ignorant nationalism to give us today's Frankenstein's monster of a Republican Party.
I think both parties have strayed. I used to lean right, but now I consider myself mostly moderate. But I look far left in comparison to the current GOP. I think there’s far more value to life than being a slave to an employer and praying to Jesus that I’ll one day be able to have my Daniel Defense Mk18 in one hand, American beer in the other, and be as moral and lib owning as POTUS valiantly fighting for my benevolent employer.
It’s like a weird mix of 1984 except half the people truly worship Big Brother mixed together with extreme Nationalism and the stupidity from Brave New World
I largely agree with your themes here as a voting republican. I just can't figure out how it actually works. I agree, some of the big dog corps. should be "forced" to take action and I believe a number of them will (PPE provided, WFH arrangements, limited capacity etc.). The way I read it, your post is aimed at the Anacott Steel types.
But what about the "true" blue collar labor force? I am talking the "upstate NY" types. The mom and pop shop. The small union outfits that put people to work. The non-corp contractors/small businesses/low-wage earners? The guys that actually prop up and feed the beast that McConnell & Co. are protecting. How do you address them?
Your best case scenario/Christmas list doesn't work all of a sudden. I can't make it work in my head. Let's use an example. How do we tell a small electrical contractor employee dozens of union electricians to spend thousands of dollars on PPE/mitigation efforts when their truck fleet is from the 1990s, the main shop is a tin can with no heat, employee wages are borderline criminal, bonuses don't exist, and the pipeline of work is about to come to an end? Picture it. Tell a guy who is handling high-voltage lines and drilling in to ceilings to put on a flimsy medical mask... See how seriously he takes it. How do you tell state employees and contractors on construction sites to work extra shifts? Most of these jobs run around the clock with labor shortages and union protections. How do you tell a small business to reduce capacity, but increase shifts? Doesn't check out. How do you prioritize safety when we can't actually see the threat and the jury is still out on whether or not those safety measures work?
I am not writing off your list of improvements/recommendations and they certainly work to a degree, but that isn't "the answer." The answer is so complicated. The answer will never be 100% right. Political pandering aside, how does it work? I lean towards the right where we give them the opportunity to work if they can and protect business owners from frivolous lawsuits.
First, let me say I fully support taking steps to open up the economy. In fact, I am thrilled that FINRA is moving forward with plans to let people take licensing exams and is also considering letting people take exams remotely/online. Closed exam centers is terrible for my business and also has had a negative impact on other people here, as no one has been able to take the series 79 or any other licensing exams.
These republican proposals are abhorrent. Taking away a workers right to sue over COVID related illnesses gives an employer an incentive to spend less money on precautions. This proposal is not necessary because if a company does provide a reasonably safe work environment, a jury would probably rule in favor of the defendant, if the case gets that far. It is also possible, the case would be dismissed prior to getting to trial. The Iowa proposal also gives an employer an incentive to spend less money on precautions, and in a way, it seems like form of extortion. I do not know enough about the POTUS's proposal to comment but I would say that plants should not be forced to stay open if it doing so would put the workers' lives at risk.
Is it enforceable on a practical level or even intended to be? I certainly am not in favor of taking away an employees right to hold an employer accountable, but I do question the reality of enforcing these type of rules, the burden they will cause businesses, and whether or not employees want them. How can I prove that I was infected with the virus on my job site to even take claim in a lawsuit?
Look at Cuomo's mask "recommendation" that was rolled out. Great tone set by a governor to make people feel public pressure to wear face masks in stores and relieves the burden businesses like grocery stores are currently facing.. At the same time, the reality is that he was just copying CA who did it a week+ beforehand, there is no civil penalty, and you don't have to wear it if you can remain socially distant. So what the hell is it then? Feels like another useless piece of unenforceable legislation that grabs a headline.
You are basically justifying unethical behavior.
I really want to know what bank currently has Bernie Sanders as a Director.
I don't particularly think Alt-Ctr-Left is a Bernie guy, but I could be wrong.
I do wonder why it is so shocking to some that a person could work in finance and not be right wing, or at least, not be a Trump supporter or a supporter of the 2020 version of the Republican Party.
Didn't say I was shocked that someone could work in finance and not be right wing.
More like, I'm a little surprised that someone would be a career IB person and show this level of dedication to left wing causes.
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