April Oddo | Broadcast Reporter
Because of the drastic changes that COVID-19 has made to American’s daily routine, economists fear the potential damages that come from a lack of economic activity. Such a pandemic can lead to a possible recession, greatly impacting the working class and those with any form of income.
“We gotta find a way to get the economy running because any of this stuff just treats the problem and the symptoms, not the actual cause. I think we are already in a recession. I think this one is actually worse than 2008,” Erik Baerresen, CEO of Turnkey Marketing, said. “You can’t not eat and you can’t not do business, so you gotta find some way to be able to do business safely.”
Because of the stay at home order, supply and demand is being greatly distorted. Business owners are prevented from establishing any form of income, which can lead to economic damage.
“The longer that shelter in place is in place, and the longer that we have restrictions on economic activity, the higher the cost that those restrictions on the economy are going to be and probably the lesser they will have benefit for saving lives,” Charles North, Economics professor at Baylor University, said. “There is this sort of declining benefit to stopping the disease and increasing damage to continuing it.”
With the health of Americans at risk and the economy becoming weaker and weaker, it is important to find a balance of putting the safety of others first but also being able to maintain a strong economic status.
“We do know that we are seeing huge negative economic consequences of the shelter in place and other kinds of shutdowns. How you balance people’s livelihood, especially low-income people, is really very difficult,” North said.
