Yesterday during the mayor’s FB press conference he mentioned that a person asked him to call the place they worked and ask them to close entirely or work from home where possible. Paul reminded them he can certainly ‘suggest’ they close but does not have the authority to close them, which is true. This person mentioned they worked at a call center setting of around 400 people. I think know the place this person is talking about, because I have heard from other employees about how this call center’s management is virtually ignoring the warnings.
This business could certainly afford to have their employees work from home. They of course would have to set them all up with the equipment, but even after the virus passes, they could continue to have people work from home – it’s a call center for God’s sake! The sad part is when you work in a call center like that, and that close together, once one person gets sick, they all will get sick, and if they are worried about people not showing up to work now, just wait until the virus hits them. It’s extremely irresponsible and really lacks business sense.
I got word today that the governor’s office has had officials calling businesses throughout the state and asking them to close if they are non-essential. I think it is a good step, but I think eventually Noem will simply have to mandate it.
Odd how all these Republicans across the country are embracing socialism. It isn’t so bad after all? Is it?
What I find frustrating about all the mandatory government agency shutdowns (school, county and city) is while the rest of us are risking our health by going to work with very little help from the government so far, our tax dollars are paying many public employees to sit at home. The roles should be reversed, government should be working overtime right now making sure we are safe while the rest of us can work from home and self-quarantine. They could be assisting with setting up temporary hospitals and triage, helping to process tests or just delivering food to the elderly and poor.
I will defend the closing of schools, that is where it would spread the fastest. But I think all other local government employees should be pitching in. How can you take this time off, while we still head to work and pay taxes to pay your salaries while you are couch surfing? I’m not opposed to it, because we should all be working from home, but the hypocrisy is pretty stark.
I also think a better plan besides sending us checks would be a payroll tax of 0% over the next 6-12 months for those making under $100K a year and a drastic increase in income taxes for millionaires and billionaires, I would love to see at least a 40-60% income tax on them over the same time period. These people have become extremely wealthy off the backs of hard working middle class Americans, it’s time for them to step up and help us for once. That is not socialism folks, that’s just fairness.