An otherwise insightful (but somewhat crass) comment seems to have been immediately [dead] upon being posted, but I think they might be on to something. Readers: I hope you don't mind me momentarily intervening in the voting process, but I will post the comment below for others who may not have show-dead turned on to see. EDIT: Even more curious, the majority of this accounts otherwise normal posts seem to be [dead]…
It's a valid take. Not one I necessarily agree with, but one that deserves exploration. IMO we are facing costs and painful trade offs: * Many insisted that the "moral" course of action was shutting the economy down during Covid to minimize deaths. Well, OK, there is a price for that in terms of destroying businesses and livelihoods, of loneliness and isolation. A lot of people are now stressed out, out of work - and…
If large countries like the US had done a proper shutdown, the Delta variant might not be spreading around right now claiming huge numbers of lives. For example, if you want to avoid having covid cripple your economy, one useful measure would be to ensure your front-line workers (food service, caregivers, etc) have protected leave so they can recuperate at home if they get covid or go get vaccinated, then return to work full-time. Instead the US tells everyone to suck it up and come to work while they're miserable and infectious. Is it any surprise our death count is enormous and the economy is in tatters?
Rental prices were already a nightmare before the pandemic, if anything rental prices tanked for a while in some areas during it. I don't think the eviction suspension is connected to that - it had bad impacts but I don't know that you can convincingly argue that one of those impacts was price.