Posted on by Californiacontrarian

“Essential !” . . . Huh ?


Certainly there have been and will continue to be mistakes made in the management of this Wuhan virus epidemic here in the U.S., mostly because there is no past experiences to guide anybody. The models upon which many of the decisions have been made have been more wrong than right, and often these decisions seem to be rather arbitrary.(“don’t wear masks . . . oops . . .”everybody should be wearing a mask” . . . Huh?) Instead of arbitrary decisions becoming less frequent, they are seemingly continuing, all the while, seemingly without much factual basis. For example, in Wisconsin, the entire state is in lockdown despite the fact that some counties have just one or even zero cases of Covid-19! Huh? Absurd!

To me one of the biggest examples of arbitrary “economic pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey” is that of “essential” vs. “non-essential.” Who decided that elective surgery should be non-essential, while marijuana and alcohol were deemed essential? 

Huh? . . . Nonsense! 

Some of my friends, neighbors, and family have had their jobs deemed “essential” – whether they are actually essential or not, I don’t care. However, I do care that someone who probably knows little about . . . pick something . . . let’s say hairdressers, somehow decides they are non-essential. Huh! . . . Absurd.

I have been intrigued here lately by Elon Musk. Yes, that same Elon Musk, who is the Tesla guy. He has had enough of these arbitrary decisions made by ?? “officials.” Somebody in the Alameda County chain of command decided that he could not re-open his Tesla factory. I searched for, but could not come up with the person who was responsible for this somewhat arbitrary decision. What makes Musk’s decision to defy Alameda’s power play and reopen his factory is the potential economic impact for California. For you see, Elon is pissed, and has threatened to move his Tesla factories and their 10,000 jobs out of state, and more specifically to a state income tax free state, like Texas or Nevada.

Oops, suddenly this is a lot different than a hair salon owner opening her shop in defiance of arbitrary lockdown orders in Texas. This is not a single hair salon and a few jobs, but rather 10,000 jobs!! The lost tax revenue from the loss of 10,000 jobs is no small bag of potatoes! 

Will we soon be hearing, “Perhaps, your Tesla factory is a lot more essential than someone initially thought. Maybe on second thought we should reconsider and arbitrarily change it from “non-essential” to “essential.”    Huh! . . . Classic, duck and run!

As time goes on Elon Musk may well be remembered as the guy who said, “Give me liberty, or give me Texas !”

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