Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on March 31, 2020

I am no fan of Donald Trump. Quite the reverse. In fact, I regard him as totally unfit for office. I could give you dozens, maybe hundreds, of examples of things he has said and done (and tweeted!) which underline his inadequacy.

His tweets, unintentionally hilarious at first, have now become dangerous and increasingly unhinged.

So, when Trump said that he wanted everyone in church for Easter, by which time life will be back to normal, my initial reaction, like that of so many other people, was to be appalled by the impression that he values the strength of the American economy over American lives.

Of course, the President is standing for re-election in November and seems to care more about the American economy avoiding recession and massive job losses than people dying.

But there is another side to this argument, and it is this: that a recession, possibly even a Depression, will also cause deaths. Such economic conditions carry a high death toll.

In a deep recession with high unemployment, suicides and drug addiction rise. So does crime. And domestic abuse.

Moreover, how will we pay for health and education if the money runs out ?

The American $2 Trillion dollar emergency stimulus package will need to be paid for one day. But the speed of response of governments, especially those which are fiscally conservative, has been breathtaking, even if it could be argued that it began too slowly and too late.

Here in Britain, a Conservative government a Conservative government has thrown fiscal caution to the wind. Ministers have clearly decided that our health trumps economic proprieties (excuse the pun).

The UKs public borrowing for 2020-21 is likely to quadruple from a projected 50 billion to 200 billion, maybe more. But this is the price that has to be paid.

The government is bailing out people, paying salaries, supporting household incomes. It is temporary, and will preserve businesses and jobs until the crisis is over.

GDP will shrink and there will be economic pain ahead, but that is the cost we will all have to pay to save lives.

It is argued that flu and cancer cause more deaths every year, but deaths from COVID-19 can be prevented provided we are willing to make the necessary sacrifices.

We understandably dread a return to an era of Depression. No doubt Donald Trump, in his own uniquely confused way, fears that too. The damage to the American and European economies, including here in Britain, is likely to be deep and long-lasting.

The latest advice from the expert scientists is that this pandemic will not simply go away in a few weeks or months. There are likely to be surges where the virus returns.

Which is, of course, why so much effort is being put into finding a vaccine.

But we should remind ourselves that the Spanish Flu in 1918 killed 50 million people, more than World War One. This was partly because the danger was not recognised by governments, and there were far fewer restrictions on movement (and this before air travel).

We must not make the same mistakes again, and we are trying not to do so.

Will we all be poorer as a result of the Coronavirus Pandemic of 2020? Probably. Is that a price worth paying ?

I am not religious. I am nominally Christian. But I leave you with this, from The Talmud: Whoever saves a single lifesaves the whole world.

Glen Oglaza is a former ITN Senior Reporter and Sky News Political Correspondent.

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Why Trump is wrong about getting everyone into church for Easter - Reaction

Category: Talmud
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