Impact on businesses in PA due to the virus panic (Pottstown: homes, employment)

[WILWRadio]

I just found this article while researching the impact on businesses in your state due to the virus mess. Unbelievable what has happened. The state will be in economic ruins for many years, possibly a decade.

https://www.pottsmerc.com/news/local...13c8ee24d.html

[Archer705]

Absolutely disgusting what is happening to the state economically, as if the state wasn't already hanging by a thread. What's going on in PA is illogical when compared to neighboring Ohio and WV in more ways than one, which is exactly what's leading me to Weirton by the end of the year.

[Duderino]

There's strong reason to believe that the source of that article (not the Pottstown Mercury, but its outsourced journalism source of Center Square) is politically biased. Didn't take long to dig up an underlying political agenda trying to masquerade as real, local journalism:

Franklin's Right-Wing Watchdog.org Rebrands as The Center Square

An effort to replace local journalism with right-wing reporting has put on a new mask this month. The Center Square is posing as a beacon of the "highest journalistic ethics," but in reality, it is a rebranding of an outlet deemed "highly ideological" and criticized for "occasional...gross distortions" of the facts.

The Center Square website purports to be "a non-profit, non-partisan, non-political, no-nonsense organization." But its "About Us" page does not disclose that it is the latest incarnation of the*Franklin Center, a media site specifically funded to have a "valuable" role as part of Wisconsin's "conservative infrastructure."

https://www.prwatch.org/news/2019/05...-center-square


That being said, I'm highly skeptical that 30% of all local businesses have closed. If you look at state jobs numbers released in December, Pennsylvania is down by about 6-7% of employment compared to last year. Obviously not great and troubling, but very much close to the national average.

Nobody likes lockdowns, and some of the regulations are likely misguided or too focused on certain types of businesses. But there's also too many careless *******s in America, as evidenced by the fact that we have, by far, the highest caseload in the developed world. And we still have weeks/months more of contagion before vaccinations become much, much more widespread.

We only have ourselves to blame for the economic outcome because of how foolish we were back in March and April. That's what happens when you have a haphazard approach to public health. And let's not even get into the stimulus being held up for months by the petulant child in the Oval Office. I guess it's just easier to point all the fingers at Democratic governors

[jdhpa]

Originally Posted by Duderino

I guess it's just easier to point all the fingers at Democratic governors

Governors aren't elected to be the point person to ask the Federal Government for help. They're elected to lead. Any governor that doesn't believe they 100% own how the state they run responded to covid (or any other problem) has loudly announced they should never hold public office.

[Duderino]

Originally Posted by jdhpa

Governors aren't elected to be the point person to ask the Federal Government for help. They're elected to lead. Any governor that doesn't believe they 100% own how the state they run responded to covid (or any other problem) has loudly announced they should never hold public office.

That would be true if a pandemic on a global scale stopped at state borders. That's obviously not the case.

The result is failed national leadership during an unprecedented crisis and states that are forced to "fend for themselves." The federal government has a constitutional responsibility to assist in this case, and it has responded pretty abysmally.

[jdhpa]

Originally Posted by Duderino

That would be true if a pandemic on a global scale stopped at state borders. That's obviously not the case.

The result is failed national leadership during an unprecedented crisis and states that are forced to "fend for themselves." The federal government has a constitutional responsibility to assist in this case, and it has responded pretty abysmally.

Your statement makes no sense at all. governors have authority over what happens in their state. No one forced Cuomo to require nursing homes to admit patients that were still infectious with covid, he did that all by himself. Making excuses for him just ensures continued failing leadership. In a democracy you get the government you deserve. Your statement absolving governors of their responsibility for how they handled covid illustrates what that means.

Kindly specify the section of the Constitution that requires the federal government to directly control the state's response to a virus.

[Archer705]

Originally Posted by Duderino

That would be true if a pandemic on a global scale stopped at state borders. That's obviously not the case.

The result is failed national leadership during an unprecedented crisis and states that are forced to "fend for themselves." The federal government has a constitutional responsibility to assist in this case, and it has responded pretty abysmally.

If that were the case, other states would also have the issues that PA is having and outside of CA, NY, and a couple of others, that simply is NOT the case. PA has incompetent leadership and there's no way around that.

[eliza61nyc]

Originally Posted by Duderino

There's strong reason to believe that the source of that article (not the Pottstown Mercury, but its outsourced journalism source of Center Square) is politically biased. Didn't take long to dig up an underlying political agenda trying to masquerade as real, local journalism:




https://www.prwatch.org/news/2019/05...-center-square


That being said, I'm highly skeptical that 30% of all local businesses have closed. If you look at state jobs numbers released in December, Pennsylvania is down by about 6-7% of employment compared to last year. Obviously not great and troubling, but very much close to the national average.

Nobody likes lockdowns, and some of the regulations are likely misguided or too focused on certain types of businesses. But there's also too many careless *******s in America, as evidenced by the fact that we have, by far, the highest caseload in the developed world. And we still have weeks/months more of contagion before vaccinations become much, much more widespread.

We only have ourselves to blame for the economic outcome because of how foolish we were back in March and April. That's what happens when you have a haphazard approach to public health. And let's not even get into the stimulus being held up for months by the petulant child in the Oval Office. I guess it's just easier to point all the fingers at Democratic governors

ding ding ding. we have a winner.

now I'm not absolving Wolf but he definitely had help from our current class clown

[Duderino]

Originally Posted by jdhpa

Your statement makes no sense at all. governors have authority over what happens in their state. No one forced Cuomo to require nursing homes to admit patients that were still infectious with covid, he did that all by himself. Making excuses for him just ensures continued failing leadership. In a democracy you get the government you deserve. Your statement absolving governors of their responsibility for how they handled covid illustrates what that means.

I'd love to see your source on your claim about Cuomo. Sounds like a suspect interpretation of facts there.

Nevertheless, you've misunderstood my statement. It has nothing to do with absolving responsibility; it has everything to do with the lack of coordinated national effort, which is completely ridiculous and forced governors into making difficult and sometimes drastic decisions.

This is a national security crisis, and the patchwork response by governors was the only alternative in the absence of coordinated leadership.

[Duderino]

Originally Posted by Archer705

If that were the case, other states would also have the issues that PA is having and outside of CA, NY, and a couple of others, that simply is NOT the case. PA has incompetent leadership and there's no way around that.

Oh please. Let's not go down the road of competent leadership. Again, we're the only Western nation without a coordinated public health response at the national level, and it's a failure for which we're all to blame. It's truly a disgrace. Keep in mind that we're approaching 400K excess deaths from the pandemic in the US alone, the vast majority of which could have been prevented with simple changes in behavior:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...h-toll-us.html


Without the lockdowns, this would have been far worse.

And yes, ALL states have felt a significant economic impact from the pandemic whether you'd care to admit it or not. Look at the latest jobs numbers; no state made it out unscathed--not by a longshot:

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.nr0.htm