Scholarship table
Two aspects of that are pretty amazing. 1) Healthcare expenditures makes up 17% of our entire GDP.2) Elective procedures make up enough of that to have a massive economic effect.C) What happens in Q2, when economic impacts really starts to hit other sectors.
Re point C -- you're right. But hopefully by then the health-care sector will be in full rebound mode. For example, the 2 major Charlotte hospitals, one of which is the largest employer in North Carolina, just started allowing "elective" procedures again.
Funding like single payer without the side benefits of universal coverage?!?!? Sign me up!
On the bigger picture of the Covid economy, what are the opinions for how long it takes to get back to normal - or at least 80%-90% of normal?As things are now, I'm guessing 18 months to 2 years. If Covid comes back in the fall as bad as some predict, all bets are off and I see a prolonged depression.
We should have a thread on economic stuff .. saw this tweet and found it interesting:https://twitter.com/JustinWolfers/status/1255479750593859584This is stunning: Nearly half of the Q1 decline in GDP can be attributed to healthcare, which is presumably delaying of elective procedures.It's a strange reality that in the midst of a pandemic, we have a healthcare-led recession.
Good topic.The two doctors I linked to their videos the other day that YouTube felt should be censored alluded to this. Hospitals shutting down floors, urgent care centers are ghost towns, elective procedures delayed, and more serious stuff where patients that need care are staying away. The healthcare business is a relatively low margin business that depends on scale. When scale isn't there, the system has a hard time recovering in short order. Several nursing relatives have been assigned tasks like counting PVE supplies, guarding supplies, when they normally work to care for patients. They just do not have the volume and both are in fairly large urban areas (Miami and Denver).
I saw this in my newspaper today in the business section:Economists: Quick rebound unlikelyHopes are beginning to arise that the U.S. economy might be poised to rebound by the second half of the year. The idea is that the economy might be able to mount a sharp comeback if more employees and consumers were to gradually return to working and spending. Yet most economists say such expectations should be kept in check. Among their concerns is that the coronavirus could flare up again after the economy is re-opened, forcing reopened businesses to shut down again. Another is that people will remain too wary of contracting the coronavirus to return to anything resembling normal economic behavior.
If either of these are unrelated to the topic, please remove:1. Why is it "okay" to bailout large corporations that are struggling due to the impacts of the virus, but not "okay" to bailout states that are struggling due to the impacts of the virus?2. I sincerely fear for the post-covid economy. When the country was stabilized following the recovery from the 2008 recession, we easily saw where the vast majority of resources/money ended up. I fear it could be even worse this time.
I am confused why we are supposed to have a 3-6 month savings safety net, but corporations, especially those makings billions a quarter in profit, aren't.
There is a big difference between states that have been bleeding money and a financial disaster for years like Illinois, and a company that’s been profitable until all opportunity to make money was turned off.I realize that you’ve been banging in this corporate bailout drum pretty obsessively, but comparing corporations to states is not apples to oranges.
There is a big difference between states that have been bleeding money and a financial disaster for years like Illinois, and a company that’s been profitable until all opportunity to make money was turned off.
I understand what you're saying about the states, and I actually agree ... but Boeing literally was killing people through utter incompetence and hubris, and the airlines were squeezing customers for every last nickel while using stock buybacks to enrich their upper 0.1%. Just to name a few of the one-time profitable companies who need bailouts now.
I understand, and that’s why I’m glad there are restrictions on the funds given to airlines and others. Regardless, even with the massive damage to Boeing’s bottom line, without this pandemic they would have went through some pain, their stock would continue to get beat up, and then they would U back up cause they are one of 2 major players in a significant space, and still probably best of breed.
I think the underlined part is a very real possibility. Governors/states could open up tomorrow, but if consumers do not feel safe going out, it won’t matter. The the businesses will open, but the stores will still be empty. That’s why I am concerned with the “just let the healthy/low-risk people go out“ attitude.Yesterday, I heard an interview with an owner of a nail salon in Atlanta. She had been receiving calls from customers eager to return as soon as she could open up. She opened on Friday and had a surge of customers for a day or two, but then business dried up. The salon has been virtually empty for the past few days, and has few appointments booked. For now, she has decided to open on a “by appointment only“ basis.That may work for a while and for some businesses, but it is not enough for a viable recovery.
So now you’re concerned with the “just let the healthy/low risk people go out” attitude because you don’t think the businesses will get back to normal (or anything like it) right away? Of course they won’t. It will take time whenever (one month, six months, a year) we reopen to get back to normal. But I read a stat that 49% of workers in the US live paycheck to paycheck (down from 78% in 2017, thank God) and unemployment $ doesn’t last forever or even pay all the bills.I wonder if any Scoopers who downplay what a prolonged shutdown could mean to our social fabric are among those 49% living paycheck to paycheck who have lost their jobs.