Bert Dirschell
Centertown
Dear Editor:
Do you have children or grandchildren? Are you prone to abusing them? Many of us are when it comes to finances. If a bank offered to give you $1,200 if you would agree to make your children or grandchildren responsible for the debt, would you accept the offer? You would have no obligation to pay it back, but your children and grandchildren would be responsible, under threat of imprisonment, to pay at least the interest on the debt for their entire working lives.
This is exactly what some people in D.C. are proposing. Not socialists like Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but so-called sane people from both parties.
Republicans want to hand out $1,200 to most. Democrats want a massive increase in unemployment benefits. In Missouri, the unemployed can currently collect benefits for 20 weeks. Were it not for the government induced hysteria the "crisis" would not last five months.
On March 18 the CDC published information on estimates of COVID-19 mortality rates in the U.S. For those older than age 85 the rate was 10-27 percent, for the 65-84 year old age group it is 3-11 percent, for the 55-64 year old age group it is 1-3 percent and for the 20-54 year old age group it is less than 1 percent. No deaths have been reported in the U.S. for children less than 19 years of age.
Why are we shutting the country down and destroying our economy? My wife and I are 72 years old. We are willing to take our chances and keep things as operating as close to normal as possible. I am certain that my 91-year-old mother would agree with us. A lot of things can be done to protect the older than 65 community. Some are currently being done, such as senior only hours at grocery stores.
The current shut downs caused by government induced hysteria will badly damage our economy. It will take years for our economy to recover from the draconian measures being put in place, if it ever does. One thing you can bet on is that the big winner in this will be big government. We the people will lose freedom and big government will end up with a lot more power.