GameStop is a store you might be familiar with.They sell pre-owned electronic entertainments to cash strapped gamers. Their employees recently received an email from the company that informed them the company considered itself an essential business in this virus-threatened environment we find ourselves in, and they would be staying open, so strap in.
It is hard to choose as an indentured serf who you would rather have as a master. Is it the one that keeps you working and have access to an income at the risk of your health or perhaps even your life, or the one who forces you to go home and have no money but a higher chance of survival? Decisions, decisiions.
That Sophie’s Choice is exactly why the federal government is going to have to support the little guy this time. Even Mitch is floating a $1200 check for each adult making under $75k. Without that support we are truly and utterly screwed.
Right now the resentment is building among employees who are seeing the value that their employer places on them, personally, individually. GameStop made their choice. They will have to live with the consequences of it. All companies will be burdened by who they were in this moment. Who did what will be publc knowledge. They are in a tough spot, too. No revenue is not a sustainable business model. They will need help as well. Economist Robert Reich has said that the reimbursement help for companies should be directly tied to how they handled their employees and creditors, and if that is the case, GameStop may look back at the short term gains, which will likely gain them only a matter of days worth of profits before their hand is forced, and wish they had thought more long term.
This moment in history is very tough on companies that have evolved into the contemporary corporation where looking ahead more than the next quarterly earnings statement is thought of as being a snowflake, as anything is looked upon today that requires a deeper dive and maybe even some calm wisdom. This moment requires critical forethought, careful and reasoned responses.
It isn’t business as usual.
Because of that, companies are on very unfamiliar ground. Ethical decisions are made constantly by companies, both on a macro level and on an interpersonal one, but rarely are they so exposed, so in the open for people to see and judge. All the ethically grotesque decisions the banking industry made for a couple of decades happened in secret, staying that way until it blew up in their faces, and ours. This is different. We are watching those ethical decisions happen in front of our eyes. Government would do business a favor by shutting them down, saving them from themselves.
I must say, if I had imagined this scenario as the plot of a book I would be at a loss to find a way that it came out well. When the climax was achieved it would end badly, that there would be no money, no resources left and it would descend into anarchy and soon extinction. Fun book, huh?
But what I’m being fascinated by is that is not the case. The bailout of the common man is actually being crafted in Congress. It will certainly be a band-aid on a compound fracture, but still, money is being invented for the purpose. The Senate is going to pass something. The money will be spent. There is no Plan B. Well, bread lines, soup kitchens, that sort of thing. Twenty-five percent unemployment, like 1933. That is what they are desperately trying to avert, and money is not an obstacle.
I direct this to the nay-sayers, the hoax-ers, the ones who are truly making this political. Do you honestly think the Senate, THIS Senate, would pass any of this, or even bring it to the floor, if it wasn’t a 5 alarm fire? Or do you think the GOP is in on the hoax and somehow profiting from the mayhem just like the Dems? How do you square the circle?
But Covid-19 is an egalitarian cuss, and it will reveal the truth in its own good time, and the truth will set us free. We won’t have to guess about who is exaggerating and who has their head in the sand. We won’t fight about that anymore. We won’t be caught being too judgemental of companies that slogged on or not judgemental enough. That will be settled for all of us. All of this will be accomplished in a week, two at the very outside.
The President suggested everyone stay home for 15 days, but it’s not an edict, and companies are not closing, hanging on, getting the last squeeze of the human rind. The dice stop rolling in about a week.
This is the time of infection. This is the time of exponential growth. The illness we see now started close to two weeks ago. Cases in the U.S. double every two days. We are in the process of spreading the disease RIGHT NOW! Actively, invisibly, undetected. This is why it is a crisis. What you don’t see actually can hurt you.
Dr. Fauci is screaming for us all to take this more seriously. He has reappeared today, which is very helpful to a huge number of people. He is a proponent of needing to apologize for going too far than for not going far enough. Makes sense. Going too far costs you money. Not going far enough costs humans.