WE'RE NOT IN THIS TOGETHER

            How many times have you heard lockdown proponents, politicians, and bureaucrats give the pep talk "We're all in this together?"  It's not true.

             One of my interesting little info-feeds is from Doug Casey, libertarian and International Man blogger and his latest post made this point beautifully.  Although it was not the main point, it struck me as true and profound.

            We're not in this together.  The politicians and bureaucrats are not losing their jobs, losing their savings, losing their perks.  They are in a special protected class, an elite place that is above and beyond the fallout they create.

             I wonder how long the lock-downs and draconian measures would last if these folks suffered like the rest of us?  If they were watching their perks and wealth vanish and were furloughed from the jobs or lost their businesses, how long would they continue to believe the current orthodox narrative?

             My speaker bureau agent, the most jovial, entrepreneurial, upbeat guy in the world, is in a total depression funk and literally trying to stay off the street.  I told him if he got desperate enough to come to Polyface and we'd house and feed him until sanity returned.  Fortunately, I have income spread across several enterprises so my terminated speaking revenues, while serious, are not putting me on the street.

             This evening we've hired Dick Cheatham, historical impersonator extraordinaire, to entertain our Polyface extended community with John Rolfe, husband of Pocahontas and first farmer of Virginia.  He's been out of work for months and it wears on you.  It makes you doubt if you're relevant.  It makes you doubt that anybody cares about your passion or interest anymore.

             These government politicians and officials, on the other hand, enjoy incredible popularity and even more importance than before because with the stroke of a pen they wield immense power.  Everyone fawns over them, over their every thought, as their egos get stroked by the doting press and peasants waiting for edicts from on high.

             Meanwhile, the rest of us, pummeled by regulation after new regulation, try to adjust and survive.  We count our pennies.  Indeed, how Starbucks is still in business is beyond me.  We cut out every discretionary expense; we tighten our belts; we tell the children "no."  We hunker down, keep our heads low, and try to figure out one day at a time how to make do.

             At the very beginning of this, if you'll recall, I suggested that for every two or three private sector job losses there should be a corresponding one job loss from the government.  And some ratio of legislative staff and security detail for politicians.  Instead, the government is taxing us to death, printing worthless money by the boatload, and hiring more bureaucrats than ever.

             No, dear folks, we are not in this together.  We are very much in this separately and segregated.  Amazon thrives while mainstreet starves.  Carry out and drive-through industrial fast food restaurants pick up extra sales lost on craft food dine-in smaller establishments.  Nothing has bifurcated the culture like this.  I would love to be going through this with the security of a politician or government employee.  Wouldn't that be great? 

             It's time to shout it from the house tops:  "WE ARE NOT IN THIS TOGETHER."

             How are you doing?