Do not believe government pronouncements that the economy is rebounding from very minimal damage caused by unprecedented covid-19-inspired closures of businesses. Government will use its favorite statistic of the health of the economy to justify its actions - gross domestic product (GDP).
GDP is supposed to represent the total of spending on final goods and services in the economy. It is a Keynesian term that elevates a concept called "aggregate demand" as most important. Not production and especially not savings. In fact Keynesians fear savings most of all. Now, you and I know that we can become wealthier only by saving some of our income and investing it wisely for the future. But Keynesians invented a concept called "the paradox of thrift," whereby they claim that the economy enters a death spiral from reductions in spending caused by an increase in savings. Individually, savers may be better off, they say, but collectively the economy suffers. For example, the new auto that we savers do not buy, rather keeping our old one in good repair for a few more years, denies the automakers and all who work for them the money they need to continue production. Layoffs and plant closings ensue. The reduction in aggregate demand ripples outward, bankrupting more and more support businesses and their employees. This is the simplistic Keynesian view of savings.
But what happens to the money that we do not spend on as many new cars? Is it thrown down a rathole? No, of course not. It is invested in longer-term production processes that will yield even more wealth than if we had continued our former practice of buying new cars more often. Austrians call this phenomenon a change in the "structure of production." We may produce few automobiles now, but later we'll have access to products and services that would not have existed without our previous investment. We see this in our personal financial profiles. Our savings accounts increase at a compounding rate, allowing us to live a more comfortable existence later in life. This is the truth that used to be drilled into all of us before governments' in-house economists propagandized that by being frugal we were denying our fellow citizens what was rightfully theirs: i.e., our money and our future. It's nonsense. --->READ MORE HERE
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| Emily Matthews/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP |
If the school officials in Fairfax County, Virginia, need any tips on how to reopen for full-time in-person learning, they need look no further than the Catholic schools in their own neighborhood, including Oakcrest.
The private school for girls in grades 6-12 welcomed students back into the classroom for five-days-a-week instruction on Sept. 9, employing masks and distancing but not COVID-19 vaccines, revamped ventilation or other items being demanded by teachers’ unions.
Even so, Oakcrest has thrived. All but one faculty member returned. One student and one teacher contracted the coronavirus. The school temporarily quarantined the student’s grade, but otherwise never missed a beat, keeping its doors open, offering multiple sports, even putting on a fully masked spring production of “Antigone.”
“We definitely found it to be doable in our case, given our circumstances,” said Miriam Leon Buono, Oakcrest School associate head of school for operations. “I would not presume to tell others, but I do know that in-person learning has been a great gift to our children, and the faculty has been heroic. We’ve been very successful.”
With the end of the 2020-21 school year in sight, she said, “we’re big advocates for in-person learning, no doubt about it.” --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to related stories and resources:
De Blasio to update ‘two-case’ COVID school closure rule next week
Trump Was Right: Sunlight Destroys COVID 8x Faster Than Scientists Believed, Study Shows
USA TODAY: Coronavirus Updates
WSJ: Coronavirus Live Updates
YAHOO NEWS: Coronavirus Live Updates
NEW YORK POST: Coronavirus The Latest
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