Australia & NZ - Possibility of eradication

The economy does not concern me. Australia, even after what we spent, is only at a fraction of the level of debt per GDP than most other developed nations. Ever seen Japans national debt? Or the United States? We are fortunate enough to be able to afford this and the economy will start opening up again next week, slowly, and it will recover. We will have a recession but our Government can easily afford the welfare payments without even approaching many other countries levels of debt (our unemployment benefits in Australia have no time limit, unlike some other nations). If people are concerned about the debt, a small increase in Tax on the mining companies will pay for it 10 fold. China's economy is ramping up, despite their rhetoric, they will buy our iron, our steel, and our coal - they need it.

Lives have been saved, the economy will likely surprise many how well it recovers, in Australia at least, and it seems we have done a fantastic job of controlling the virus. So, I disagree with you entirely on this issue ChaoticOrder. I am not afraid of the virus, I am not functioning on fear, I feel that the best outcome, in lives and even economically was locking down and suppressing the virus. It was quite simply the most logical thing to do that would result in us returning to normal much quicker than if we had let it rip. It would have killed thousands had we done that (and the economic and social effects of that would have been devastating.) It was the best option for Australia and our economy will end up stronger in the long term because of it. There are people fear mongering about the economy. It won't be as bad you you think

originally posted by: harold223
The economy does not concern me. Australia, even after what we spent, is only at a fraction of the level of debt per GDP than most other developed nations. Ever seen Japans national debt? Or the United States? We are fortunate enough to be able to afford this and the economy will start opening up again next week, slowly, and it will recover.

If you actually believe this is true you are living in a fantasy land. Right before this pandemic started we had massive fires and before that we had a long drought. The amount of debt clearly isn't the only thing which determines the health of an economy, the U.S. had a booming economy with very low levels of unemployment before the outbreak, while Australia had a very stagnant economy with low levels of innovation because most of our products are imported. Our ratio of homeless people is over 2 times worse than the U.S. and we've had energy problems for several years, some places in Australia were reported to have the highest energy prices in the world, and that Asian nations pay less for Australian gas than Australians do because we export it at such low prices. Our economy was anything but healthy before the shutdown, we were in the worst possible position out of most developed nations and we certainly couldn't afford it.

Lives have been saved, the economy will likely surprise many how well it recovers, in Australia at least, and it seems we have done a fantastic job of controlling the virus. So, I disagree with you entirely on this issue ChaoticOrder. I am not afraid of the virus, I am not functioning on fear, I feel that the best outcome, in lives and even economically was locking down and suppressing the virus. It was quite simply the most logical thing to do that would result in us returning to normal much quicker than if we had let it rip.

The economy is not going to magically recover in the blink of an eye, especially not in Australia. Once again there is no clear evidence that a less strict lockdown would have resulted in much more death. I'm not saying we should have just "let it rip", I said that we should have only isolated the high risk group such as old people and people with pre-existing conditions, because they makeup the overwhelming majority of people who die from Covid-19. There was no valid reason to shut down nearly all businesses based on the severity of Covid-19 and there is no solid evidence to suggest a lot of lives were saved by doing so. There is however some research that estimates how many people will die as a result of the shutdowns and it outweighs the deaths by Covid-19.

a reply to: ChaoticOrder

We'll have a recession. We were heading for recession before Covid and the bushfires, but it won't cause the poverty that the Great Depression did - at least not if the government sucks up its pride and keeps up the Keynesian economic measures. Post Covid, we need to borrow, go deep into dept, and spend spend spend on infrastructure projects. We can easily afford the welfare measures in the interim. You won't see malnutrition in Australia this time around. Wait and see

Well we might get herd immunity but the virus will mutate and evolve just like regular flu and it will become a seasonal thing.

Lets stay in our houses forever.

Screw the rest of the world. All i want are CPU's, GPU's and other technology imported. and it is always imported anyways.

I'm never leaving Australia. Not ever!