Amazon did not "invent" home delivery

Younger people fell in love with the idea, and older folks re-embraced it. That's why Amazon succeeded.

Home delivery used to be the norm.

Early Boomers were probably children when it started to end, but people living in my grandparents' era were delivered to..

Grocers delivered, and if necessary, most neighborhoods had a Mom & Pop "store" in the downstairs front room of their house where you could get some canned foods/spices/candies.

There was a bread truck that made scheduled deliveries and also sold from the truck.

Pharmacies delivered. Doctors made house calls.

Milk, cheese, butter was delivered.

Ice Cream was delivered, and of course, there was "the ice cream man" who sold it individually from his truck.

People ordered from Sears, Penneys and Mongomery Wards catalogs and their merchandise was sent to the closest store or was delivered through the mail

People living in larger cities had meals delivered from take out places.

Back then people only had one car (if they even had a car) so deliveries made sense. Actual in-person shopping was an event. "going downtown" was a special day involving window-shopping, real shopping, and eating at a restaurant.

Produce was often grown in back yards or people knew someone who grew stuff.

Post-WWII advertising agencies (Think Mad Men) created the NEED for bigger, better, shinier, and just MORE MORE MORE.

We were told that we DESERVED better. Fattened up by the war machine, our factories were raring to go and with the rest of the world in shambles, we had "the only show in town"..

We had become consumers, and we've never stopped, until recently.

It will be interesting to see how eager people are to go back to the way things were recent;y, or how many will have had enough time to start to back off the mega consumption and may have learned to appreciate the unscheduled free time. Maybe also they will put more value on what they have instead of what new shiny thing they "want".

114,600,000 US citizens make under 50K a year

(I googled to get the number)

x $2K a month for 12 months comes out to roughly 2T (my son did the math)

How much easier would this have been..

Many Mom & Pop businesses don't make 50K a year..

This would have been waaaay cheaper than what we've done, and there would be breathing room without so many desperate people.

People would be able to have a cushion for a year..could shelter in place

A dilemma ahead for too many people

Your boss calls you and says, we're back in business. Show up for work .

You live in a state that was not particularly efficient about setting boundaries or speedy at sending people into lockdown.

What do you do?

Schools are not going to reopen. Your daycare options may be limited.

If you are no show, and it's legal for the business to operate, you may be fired. If you are fired for cause (refusing to show up for work), you are not entitled to unemployment payments.

Sometimes more information can be a problem.

When we first heard about covid19, the skinny on it was this:

“Deadly to older folks with compromised health”.

That meant that MANY super-rich older folks seemed to be the target. These are the people who get catapulted to the top of transplant lists, and have the best that money can buy when it comes to hospitals and specialists.

There was real cause for concern. The whole issue was all about protecting our elders. We were eager to stay at home, cut off contact.

Anything to protect Grandma and Grandpa, or CEOS. For days there were always pics of genteel/frail (white) elders on tv day and night.

BUT it wasn’t long before more information came out that narrowed the “target” population.

Poor people are at greater risk because of the density of living conditions, mostly in larger cities (Usually Democratic party voters live there).

They are also more at risk because of their health issues. Decades of poor health care due to the fact that most poor people work really shitty jobs with no sick leave or health insurance. These people rely on the ER for health care, and cannot pay for their care.

Many poor folks are chronically unemployed, or homeless. This means that their basic food supply is laden with fats/sugars and is often stuff that’s bought at bodegas/dollar stores and is usually “processed” to the nth degree. Obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, asthma, and diabetes are well known to poor people.

These are not “personal choices”. They are financial consequences of where and how they have to live (polluted areas with bad air, bad water, mold, toxic substances in the buildings, etc).

The elder poor who are in nursing homes are usually in homes that are Medicaid-supported. These places are often staffed with younger poor folks who make substandard wages, are extremely overworked, and often live in densely populated living conditions.


Elder not-so-poor are not immune even though they can afford resort style retirement homes, because the staff is still often poor younger folks, since the owners of these facilities are always watching “the bottom line”.

Minorities are often a large part of the poor faction. Hispanics, documented or undocumented, and African Americans soon became the media focus.

With that new focus, every interviewer was immediately putting any democrat on the air in the hot seat with questions about why these folks were not a part of the $1200 scheme and how they (Dems) would shape future legislation to see that these people got their fair shake.. and of course why they were disproportionately affected by the virus..(always asked with pretend naivete)

It was not a very far leap before prisoners became the focus.

So in a few weeks, the story about the virus went from being a bad old invisible enemy set on killing Granny & Gramps, to an inevitable force of nature that seemed to be preying on “illegals, non-whites, lazy poor folks, and prisoners”.

I’ve understood how republicans think for a very long time now, and I knew where this was heading. Remember after Katrina, when some congressman said that Katrina had accomplished what “they” had been trying to do for a very long time?

Republicans are just fine with the virus running wild.
Apparently, Trump can not only shoot someone on 5th Avenue, but he can also exterminate tens of thousands of people, and his crew will love him all the more.

This is why he does not want to waste money and effort on testing. He needs for the virus to do his party’s work, and if a few doctors and nurses, or some celebs die, he’s ok with that.

He can now just blame the governors.

Want to see how far your exhalation travels..watch this

Will there be a monument?

9/11 has one
Viet Nam war has one

Surely the sheer magnitude of the losses will demand one..

Would be fitting to give Trump his due as well, so posterity knows who was in charge and who was responsible.

EDITED TO ADD "/"..

This 30 day period COULD be pivotal in ending the crisis

and getting business cranking again.

But it won't be because we have an inept government..

In a perfect world, a govt would :

Immediately start antibody testing in EVERY community..

Enlist a cadre of immune folks to go Door to Door in every neighborhood, testing every resident (who should be at home).

This should be done 7 days a week from 8 AM-7 PM.

These should be the fastest tests.
Test #1 indicates if you HAVE it, and being undiagnosed, are exposing family to danger
Test #2 indicates if you have antibodies (had it, now immune)..

As soon as the results are in, a card is mailed to the testee and into a database

This does three things..

It identifies clusters
It identifies "safe" potential workers
It identifies vulnerable people who will need more "safe harbor" until a vaccine or reliable treatment is found

"Safe", immune folks could go back to work ASAP.

With the card issued showing your immunity, you could then use public transport, work, attend school.

It's unfortunate that we would be a "papers please" society, but at least until there's a vaccine, this may be the only safe way to
re-start society again.

Test canvasser is also a new job for people who may have lost their regular jobs. They would be a member of revamped public health departments that every town surely needs now more than ever.

We have to face facts.

People are not going to flood back into their previous life as a "consumer".
They don't have the money
they are now in debt more than ever,
they are scared


The only thing that will help, is to give people confidence that they can be safe again

Coronavirus briefing is now about drug interdiction?

And of course, dear leader blathering.

No mention of covid19 running rampant on ships...