Former Senator from South Australia, Cory Bernardi sends A Weekly Dose of Common Sense via email each week. The latest was concerning the coronavirus and the money governments are throwing at it. Cory wrote; ‘This is killing us!
No, not the Coronavirus but the government response to it.
I’ll explain exactly how the damage is being done in a moment but first we need some perspective on Covid-19.
The Coronavirus is highly contagious and particularly dangerous for the elderly, chronically ill or those with compromised immune systems. For the rest of us, the effects are more likely that of a nasty bout of the flu or hardly any symptoms at all.
At this time, the alarmism and catastrophic predictions aren’t aligning with the facts but then again they rarely do.
Yes, there are many people infected with the virus and people are dying but the headline figures don’t paint the full picture.
In countries with widespread testing of the population, the mortality rate of those infected is less than one percent. In places like Italy, 99 per cent of fatalities have occurred amongst those in the high risk categories.
Put simply, this virus is very bad news if you are vulnerable but doesn’t appear much for the rest of us to worry about.
That is unless you are in the 99.9 per cent whose lives have been turned upside down by overzealous governments around the world.
To paraphrase US President Donald Trump, the supposed cure could be worse than the disease.
Right now, the world is being driven into a global depression because of government action. They have effectively shut down the business community virtually guaranteeing an economic collapse.
On top of that they are throwing helicopter money at all and sundry in a desperate bid to prop up the crumbling economy.
The economics are pretty straightforward and I’ll make it as simple as I can.
If you have to shut down your business for a month with no revenue, you still have your costs to pay. That means it will take two, three or more months of normal (profitable) trading just to pay that first months costs.
The longer the closure goes on the more time it takes to get back to the starting line.
This is the real contagion attached to this virus.
A failing business often causes others to fail along the way. People lose their jobs and stop spending because they are scared about the future.
In short, our society depends on confidence to keep it going and the lack of confidence has been created by government response to Coronavirus and fuelled by media hysteria.
I have said before, no government gets re-elected for avoiding a crisis. They only benefit from over-stating the danger, responding to it and claiming credit for the better than expected solution.
So when you hear that 200k people or more could die from this virus in Australia, you can be pretty confident that the actual number will be a fraction of that. Then, the government can claim to have saved so many lives through their draconian response.
The problem is that long after the Corona panic of 2020 is gone, the disastrous economic hangover will linger far longer and do much more damage than the virus ever did.’
Cory did finish by stating ‘P.S – No matter how overcooked the hysteria attached to Coronavirus may be, there is a very real danger for many in our community….and many subscribers to this e-letter. Please take care and protect yourself. Self-isolate if in high risk category or showing symptoms, adopt some extra personal hygiene practices and seek medical help if symptoms arise. It’s just common sense.’
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