In this shelter in place, only essential industries are allowed to remain open, but what have governors/ economists decided are essential industries for emergencies and over what time frames?
Over a 2-3 day emergency, essential services are healthcare, fire, and police. Over a 3-5 day emergency, essential services are healthcare, fire, and police plus grocery stores and pharmacies. As the situation stretches out, more and more goods are added to the essentials list. For example, car mechanics are needed in case other essential workers' cars break down. You also need the services to keep people's internet and devices and appliances running so they can continue living at home. You need the chemical plant to keep producing garbage bag liners and construction workers repairing damages. Unfortunately, given that we have no end in sight, economists are hard-pressed to decide how many of these industries we need to leave open and how many can be closed down to benefit the isolation. And the longer the isolation runs, the more industries we need to keep open so people can continue to operate from home, which will likely lead to less isolation. At this point, a variety of goods and services have been deemed essential to keep people's lives running, but many have had to adapt to the new situation. Restaurants now can only do take-out, many companies (ex. tech, finance, etc.) have employees working remotely, and schools have moved online, as all of these are as essential as maintaining isolation.
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This is very interesting and actually something I was pondering. I was confused because I did not feel like Teaspoon or Posh Bagel was an essential service at first, but now I get the definition. If you look at it from an economic point of view, it makes sense. Over time, people are going demand more of these luxury services when they no longer are being supplied. For example, it is easy to live without going out to eat for 3 days, but after a while people's demand for takeout increases.
ReplyDeleteThis is very interesting. I too am confused which industries are actually to be considered essential. When I noticed that the Baskin Robbins by my house was still open I was a little bit confused until I saw the restaurants clause in the stay at home order. With places like Florida opening beaches I wonder how this pandemic is going to turn out.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great article! There are so many essential industries that benefit the economy that are not allowed to operate right now, and it's interesting that you point it out. The biggest takeaway is how the blue collar workers are not allowed to operate, and we are beginning to see how important, or "essential," they have been for the economy. I think restaurants are all open right now, although no dine-ins are allowed, because there are people who have lifestyles of going out to eat and rarely cooking at home.
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