Episode 55 Show Notes- The Rise of a Generation & the Aftermath of COVID-19

 

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Episode Description

The Coronavirus COVID-19 and the ensuing economic problems have become a defining moment for the United States and the international community. We are in unchartered territories, and for the first time in a half-century, our country is asking us to sacrifice for the greater good. We are being called upon to do our part during these challenging times. Will we put aside our petty differences and rise to the occasion? The greatest generation got that moniker because they lived through challenging times and they always rose to the occasion. They sacrificed when asked. They recognized that some things were bigger than themselves. They rose to the moment and never complained. Can we be one-tenth of what these heroes were?

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Intro

Welcome to The P.A.S. Report Podcast. This is your host Nick Giordano and I hope you are having a good week.

The situation regarding the Coronavirus has dramatically changed. Our way of life for the next several weeks has dramatically changed. This is going to be a really important episode and I hope that you will share it with others. In previous episodes, I spoke about the Coronavirus and the importance of not panicking. I spoke about the virus itself, and why I’m not particularly concerned about the virus itself. It doesn’t mean we should not take it seriously. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be taking every precaution to stop the spread of the virus.

But in this episode, I will take a different approach. I want to examine what the aftermath of this virus looks like. I want to examine some of the long-term effects and dangerous times ahead. I want to examine this defining moment of a generation.

But before I jump right in, go to thepasreport.com to see the show notes of that episode, and you can purchase Dr. Hanson’s book through Amazon from the website. While there, don’t forget to sign up for The P.A.S. Report newsletter.

The response

While there are many that will complain and criticize the government’s response and the complete shutdown of our everyday lives, that gets us nowhere, and what is done is done. We can complain all we want about the role the media played in spinning everything up, forcing politicians into a reactive state where they are trying to outdo one another in taking the most extreme measures in order to stop the virus. We can complain all we want about those politicizing the virus for their own political gain.

We can complain about where some defects may have existed within the response efforts so far. We can complain about how the CDC initially wanted to make the Coronavirus test kits in-house rather than utilizing the private sector.

The fact is, none of those complaints change anything. From an emergency management perspective, it is always better to ramp up for the worst-case scenario than to be caught flat-footed like we were during Hurricane Katrina. From a political science perspective, it illustrates how Americans know very little about government, federalism, and the way our system is designed.

Many believe that the federal government is the be all end all. That the federal government can do anything and everything. They are unaware that it’s not so simple. Our government is designed to be slow, awkward, inefficient and complex. Federal powers are limited. Due to federalism, we have two levels of government, neither of which are created by the other, and both operate independently of each other. For the last two weeks, I explained how the local government is on the front lines. How they will be fighting the virus. How the states and the federal government must provide support and resources.

But it is important to recognize the limitations of government, and that government does not have a magic wand to make the virus go away. Government can only prepare for, respond to, and assist with recovering from an incident.

The government has taken extreme measures to contain the virus, so let’s hope these measures work and we can begin lifting the lockdowns as soon as possible.

This is now an all-hands on deck approach, and we all have a role to play. President Trump has outlined broad measures reminding me of an FDR type approach to fight this virus. It also appears that many of our leaders, from the President to governors, have put aside party politics in a unified effort to tackle the challenges.

In the coming days, weeks, and months, we will witness sweeping changes throughout our society. We will see policy measures that will greatly impact our way of life and the future of the United States, and I want to discuss these things in a minute.

But before I do, I want people to realize that this is the first time in over a half-century that we, as a people, have been asked to sacrifice for the greater good of our society. This is the first time in over a half-century that we have to contribute to our country, our communities, our neighbors.

The greatest generation got that moniker because they lived through challenging times and they always rose to the occasion. They sacrificed when asked. They recognized that some things were bigger than themselves. They rose to the moment and never complained.

Now it’s our turn, and if we can be one-tenth of what the greatest generation was, we will be fine. Americans have a habit of stepping up when needed. We tend to rally around each other in times of crisis. I explain this when I teach nationalism, and the important role it plays as it links us together and motivates us to help one another.

The country is once again calling on us to be responsible and to sacrifice. Let us rise to this challenge. Let’s put aside our ideological differences. Remember, this virus doesn’t care what your race is. It doesn’t care what religion you may follow. It doesn’t discriminate, and it doesn’t care if you are a Democrat or Republican.

An uncertain future

With that being said, we head into an uncertain future about what the end game looks like. I’ve been talking about the economic devastation for the last couple of weeks. I think all Americans need to realize that we are going to face some serious challenges going forward, particularly with the economy, and the chances for a recession, and perhaps a depression, are all but guaranteed. So, I want to start off with the economy and then branch into other areas.

Economic concerns

Our economy was firing on all cylinders, and now it’s come to a crashing halt. Depending on how long this will last, most businesses will suffer. Many small businesses do not have the cash reserves to make it through a 4-week period. If it goes on longer than 4-weeks, small businesses will begin to shutter, and even some large corporations will deplete their cash reserves.

The federal reserve is already injecting money into the market and I am not sure that’s the right way to go. I am not overly concerned about the stock market. When the stock market crashed in 1929, all losses were recouped in 4-years, by 1933, yet the depression lasted several more years.

What I don’t want to see is useless economic stimulus packages that don’t work. Stimulus packages that don’t retain employment levels. Stimulus packages that reward fiscally irresponsible companies. Stimulus packages that just waste money and add to our debt. We need to keep in mind that we have a $23.5-trillion-dollar debt, and we can’t just continue to add to it.

Here at The P.A.S. Report, I’m about solutions, not failed policies that have been tried before. We need to be creative and think outside the box here.

Bailouts and large corporations

Also, there is talk about bailing out corporations. I am not a big fan of bailouts, yet I understand the need for targeted bailouts to certain sectors. We cannot allow our entire airline industry to falter. That would be far worse than providing the airline industry with targeted bailouts. However, we need to be selective. And the coronavirus has given us a unique opportunity to identify weaknesses within the system. Large corporations should not get taxpayer bailouts for anything, especially if they are one of those companies that do not pay any taxes in the first place.

Large corporations should be given bailout loans that must be paid back. In addition, we need to change the way we think and going forward, these large corporations need to be better prepared to weather future economic storms. Congress should begin considering a law that every large corporation, that serves a vital role in America’s economic wellbeing and national security, should have to direct 5% of their profits to their own economic emergency fund.

The government would not be the one in charge of these funds. Rather the corporation shall retain control over these funds and will have to provide proof of compliance each year. If a corporation tries to access these funds in a nonemergency situation, then these funds should be taxed at the same rate individuals are taxed if they access their 401(k)’s or IRA’s.

Large corporations thriving off the Coronavirus

There are many companies that will actually do far better than others. Some will actually increase their business because they are considered vital during the public health crisis. There are several industries that are allowed to remain open and are seeing a significant increase in business from the consumers and the government making purchases. For these companies/large corporations that see a large increase in revenue and profits, more than their normal profits, they should have to contribute 25% of those profits to an emergency employment fund.

Emergency Employment Fund

This emergency employment fund would be set up to help certain small businesses shut down due to the Coronavirus. The most important aspect of the coming economic storm will be to make sure people still have jobs and are receiving a paycheck.

Many small businesses operate with a debt burden and are unable to withstand facing a month without customers. These small businesses employ 59 million people making up 47.5% of the American workforce.

If nothing is done, the businesses will have no choice but to lay off workers and ultimately close for good. I know the idea of small business loans with little to no interest is being batted around, but this won’t fly and shows the lack of creativity when it comes to tackling this. It’s the same old regurgitated ideas. Increasing their debt burden will only increase the pressure on them, and they will face the same fate of shuttering their doors eventually. You are just postponing the inevitable.

Another dumb idea is just giving people money, and I know this idea is being batted around with bipartisan support. Giving people money does nothing to protect people’s jobs, and it doesn’t help people’s self-worth. While it may provide short-term stimulation to the economy, its long-term impacts are negligible. Also, I fear that this would be a push for a guaranteed universal income increasing people’s dependency on government. I’ll get into that a little later.

So, we need to be creative and that’s where the Emergency Employment Fund will come into play. The money will be distributed from the Emergency Employment Fund to qualified small businesses to help meet those business’s payroll. That would allow the business to retain its employees throughout the shutdown. This program should be used solely for payroll obligations.

Other help for small businesses

Meeting payroll obligations will only be one piece of helping small businesses keep their doors open. We should also be considering a Landlord Assistance Program. I can’t take credit for this idea. A friend of mine who is a real estate lawyer, Russell Blaymore, was the one who came up with this idea. This program would allow landlords to offer rent deferral or rental reduction programs for retail leases particularly restaurants, and other service sector small businesses.

For landlords that offer this to their tenants, they will automatically qualify for mortgage deferral or mortgage reduction program based on the percentage of relief they provide their tenants. So, if they offer a 50% reduction to their tenants, they will receive a 50% reduction in their mortgage note for that month. If a landlord owns the property outright and doesn’t hold a mortgage note, they can write-off the full amount of the reduction they provide to their tenants.

These are just a couple of ideas to try and sustain the small business community. There are other measures that should be taken as well. We should incentivize utility companies to offer assistance to small businesses, as well as insurance premium discounts while the business remains closed.

Opportunities

There are also opportunities to reignite America’s manufacturing capabilities. The Coronavirus has highlighted some major defects as economies have become so intertwined over the last century due to globalization. I will get to how the virus has severely damaged the globalist movement and agenda, as well as the idea of unfettered globalization later.

We have some glaring weaknesses, and China threatening to withhold critical pharmaceuticals from the United States highlights how countries can weaponize necessary goods in order to hurt us. We need to start spreading our manufacturing sector in order to lower risk. But what’s even more important is that necessities like pharmaceuticals be manufactured here in the United States. We should not be reliant on adversaries to provide these critical products.

Congress should immediately pass a law that every company has to conduct risk assessments of doing manufacturing in another country. In addition, companies should have to develop plans that if something were to happen in that country or the global community, that they will still be able to produce the product within the United States.

For all companies producing life necessities, they need to have capabilities in the United States. While the cost of the product may have to rise to a certain degree, it will provide much-needed security. In addition, it will create an enormous amount of jobs within the United States.

We need to understand that if other countries are producing our critical goods, and catastrophe happens, they have an obligation to their people first. These countries would use those goods in their country and will not export them to other countries including the United States. It doesn’t matter if they are an ally or an adversary.

We need to limit our reliance on other countries. We should be dependent on no one, and we have plenty of capabilities and resources here. This doesn’t mean that we close ourselves off to the world. That’s not going to happen. But we need to be smart. We cannot have an economy that other countries can weaponize against us.

Globalization

For many, their eyes have been opened to the defects of unfettered globalization. On the first day of my international relations class, I always ask my students how globalization impacts them directly. They don’t realize that what happens over there, impacts us over here. I always talk about how things like gas prices, jobs, war, security, and pandemics directly impact their lives.

In a world where globalization has greatly accelerated, it can have devastating consequences. Globalization has always existed, but due to technological innovations, the changes are rapid. 200 years ago, most disease outbreaks would be localized, maybe they would be elevated to an epidemic. But today, we are witnessing how rapid a virus can spread from one country to another. I have been harping on this for 14 years.

For those who want to say that we need to integrate countries more. These globalists believe economies should be further intertwined and dependency on other countries should be increased. That we need to water down the concept of the nation-state and destroy nationalism. This will be the moment that these globalists are marginalized.

Prior to the coronavirus, many countries, particularly those in Europe, and many people in the United States were saying borders are irrelevant. They said borders are racist and xenophobic. They said border security wasn’t all that important. Yet, now we see nation-states throughout the world shutting their borders to try and contain the virus. Countries are not reevaluating their border policies as they should.

Countries should be allowed to implement border security measures. They should know who is coming into their country, why they are coming in, as well as the overall health of that individual. What amazes me is how some are still saying that shutting the border or enhancing border security measures is racist and xenophobic.

In fact, as many liberal nations in Europe are beginning to close their borders, you still have people like Joe Biden who said he would not shut our border down or ban people from other countries from traveling to the United States. In fact, last week when he gave his Coronavirus address, he started his speech by talking about how racism and xenophobia are the problem and banning travel would just further ignite racism. Really?

All these people do is traffic in race peddling. In fact, they say we can’t even call it the Wuhan virus or the China virus because it originated in Wuhan China. That’s how dumb some people are. Are we going to replace Lyme disease because it discriminates against people from Lyme, CT? Are we going to replace Coxsackie because it discriminates against people from Coxsackie, NY? Or what about the Spanish flu?

People can be clueless. If all the cases were in New Jersey, wouldn’t we ban people from traveling to and from New Jersey? It has nothing to do with race or xenophobia.

Borders are important and nation-states are starting to realize that again. It doesn’t mean that people can’t migrate. It means that a country is sovereign, and the country gets to determine who can come in and who can’t.

In fact, we should be holding China accountable. I am shocked that we aren’t hearing for more calls to hold China responsible and demand answers from China. We need to know and demand when they found out about this virus. We need to demand answers about how this virus originated. Was it from a lab or through natural transmission in the environment? We need to punish China for covering it up for a month. How could the spread have been prevented if China was honest from the beginning and international health experts were deployed to the area from the beginning?

China needs to be held accountable and pay for some of the economic damage. They should be the ones to pay for the stimulus or other programs as I stated before. Perhaps we should force them to forgive some of our debt they control. Maybe we can place Coronavirus tariffs on products we import. There are a variety of ways we can get China to pay.

Closing

What I will say that we need to be on guard with is the increasing calls for socialism as we move forward. People are all too willing to grant government enormous amounts of power during a national emergency and people are more than willing to trade their liberty for more security, especially if they feel they are desperate. As Benjamin Franklin once said, “Those willing to trade their liberty for more security, deserve neither.”

We must be vigilant and demand power be returned to the people once this crisis passes. Reject calls to grant government more power. You are going to see a lot of terms used over and over again, including words like “collective” and “equity.” These are nothing more than code words for those that want the government to take over entire sectors of the economy. Do not forget our roots. Do not forget the fact that America has been able to meet every challenge and obstacle because of liberty, not in spite of liberty.

We shall meet this challenge. We can emerge from this stronger and more united than before, but it will take all of us to put in the effort. We can rise to this moment and put our mark on history.

I want to read a passage from Abraham Lincoln’s annual address to Congress delivered on December 1, 1862. I believe this passage is really appropriate for today’s times.

“Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We — even we here — hold the power and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free — honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just — a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless.”

As always if there is a topic or issue you would like me to focus on, send an email to podcast@pasreport.com.

Thank you for joining us, stay safe, and I’ll be back next week.

 

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