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Under Pandemic Lockdowns, the Rich Got Richer and the Poor Got Crushed
Townhall.com ^ | February 15, 2022 | Stephen Moore

Posted on 02/15/2022 4:20:06 AM PST by Kaslin

Today, two years after COVID-19 first hit these shores from China, most studies confirm that the heavy-handed government lockdowns of businesses, restaurants, schools, churches and parks did more harm than good to our health and well-being.

States and countries with strict and prolonged lockdown and stay-at-home orders had slightly better health outcomes, but they ruined their economies and had highly adverse effects on children.

If any good comes out of COVID-19, it should be that we've learned this lesson the hard way, and never, never again should we allow politicians to impose these unconstitutional lockdown orders again.

Now we have evidence of more collateral damage from lockdowns, and perhaps this will persuade even those on the far left who generally support the heavy hand of government.

Shutting down the economy hurt the poor the most and vastly widened the chasm between rich and poor. Lockdowns squashed small startup businesses, hurt low-income workers whose jobs were first in line to be destroyed and devastated educational advances of children in the worst school districts.

For example, we have learned that high-achieving children did fine with remote learning. However, those who scored below average in school performance or from low-income families without computer skills tended to tune out and shut down online lessons completely. We know from teachers that as many as one-third of children rarely, if ever, even turned on a computer during the lock downs. The long-term educational setbacks for these children as they grow to adult age could be devastating.

Just who were the winners from lockdown nation? Let's start with the corporate titans: Walmart, Google, Amazon, Walgreens, Apple, McDonald's, Pfizer, Goldman Sachs, etc. They were rewarded with the designation of "essential" by the politicians. Their doors stayed open. They raked in dollars by the millions.

You don't have to take my word for it. Here is a headline from MarketWatch earlier this month: "Big Tech's pandemic year produces mind-boggling financial results."

We learn that big businesses scored a "$1.4 trillion payday" during the pandemic. Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft increased their profits by 45% last year. "Wow, bring back more pandemics!" they must be shouting around the boardroom table.

Then there was this nugget from the front page of the New York Times: "Wealth inequality is the highest since World War II." George Soros, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett won the lottery.

Don't get me wrong: I'm not a basher of Big Tech or Big Pharma. On the contrary, I love a rising stock market. If firms make great products or services that people want, hooray for capitalism. Everyone's better off.

But here, we see the hypocrisy of the left in the media come shining through. The left denounces inequality, but it embraces the policies that allow the uneven playing field.

When will the bleeding hearts learn this history lesson that keeps repeating itself like a skip on a vinyl record? Big government creates economic unfairness. It never solves it.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: bigtech; covid19; covidrestr; covidvaccine

1 posted on 02/15/2022 4:20:06 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Even the toilet paper companies got rich, at least for a while.


2 posted on 02/15/2022 4:21:45 AM PST by the_individual2014
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To: Kaslin

Hmmmm. Crushed would seem to indicate past tense. We’re still getting ground to a pulp. And “they” ain’t done yet.


3 posted on 02/15/2022 4:23:50 AM PST by rktman (Destroy America from within? Check! WTH? Enlisted USN 1967 to end up with this? 😕)
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To: Kaslin

Here is where push cmes to shovem the fascist nexus whichi needs accurate scrutiny.

The arbitrary nature of deciding what worker was essential and whichi was not.

IDENTOFY who decided this in each state and in the federal government. Make a list of their names. Conduct inquiries into the methid of deciding this question.

Who decided that har dressers were no essential? The supposition is that we can do without hair dressers and that they could not mitigate their exposure risks? WRONG.

Same with exercise salons and sport venues and schools.

THE locus of the question was WRONG.

The question shodl have been , can the haior dresser do witout her income.Why is this the proper question? It is the proper question because we live in a democracy with certain unalienable rights of travel, assembly and commerce.

To have a persons livelihood ripped away by some faceless health bureaucrat whicle the poliiticians knuckle under to them is wrong, and it was the greatest wrong perpetrated on the People in the hostory of both the United States and Canada.

It should NEVER be allowed to happen ever again.

Nest time should it happen, let the entire nation rise up against these oppressors!Letthere be a Freedom Convoy on steroids!


4 posted on 02/15/2022 4:28:44 AM PST by Candor7 ((Obama Fascism:http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/05/barack_obama_the_qhttps://uintessentia_1.html))
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To: Kaslin
"Under Pandemic Lockdowns, the Rich Got Richer and the Poor Got Crushed"

Of course. That's what the corrupt politicians and the rest of the parasites had in mind all along!

5 posted on 02/15/2022 4:29:40 AM PST by Savage Beast (The Left has replaced the American Dream with an American Nightmare!)
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To: Kaslin

I hate to sound like a “conspiracy theorist” and all, but this outcome almost seems planned or something.


6 posted on 02/15/2022 4:30:51 AM PST by cdcdawg (Everyone who disagrees with me is a Qtard blogger!!!!)
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To: rktman

Not done until international financiers own everything. They want all our work earnings going to a sorta subscription model for everything we do. As Schwab said, you’ll own nothing and like it.


7 posted on 02/15/2022 4:32:39 AM PST by teevolt
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To: Kaslin
States and countries with strict and prolonged lockdown and stay-at-home orders had slightly better health outcomes,

I have recently seen some people I haven't seen in two years. I didn't recognize them because they gained so much weight! The "better health outcomes" of the lockdowns is yet to be decided in the long term!

8 posted on 02/15/2022 4:33:10 AM PST by missnry (The truth will set you free ... and drive liberals crazy!)
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To: Kaslin

📌⬆


9 posted on 02/15/2022 4:33:10 AM PST by Varsity Flight ( "War by the prophesies set before you." I Timothy 1:18)
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To: Kaslin
Yup,Soros,Zuckerberg,Bezos...and the Red Chinese...are laughing right now.A multi trillion dollar redistribution of wealth carried out while we were ordered to hide under our beds.
10 posted on 02/15/2022 4:36:26 AM PST by Gay State Conservative (Covid Is All About Mail In Balloting)
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To: Kaslin

The poor got crushed? BS. They got all kinds of free money and still don’t have to pay their rent or utilities. The middle class small business owners got crushed along with restaurant/bar workers because of lockdowns and supply shortages.


11 posted on 02/15/2022 5:01:00 AM PST by frogjerk (I will not do business with fascists)
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To: teevolt

My daughter-in-law works as a fundraiser for a medium sized non-profit out in the Bay Area. Most everyone she solicits is in the tech industry in one way or another. The techies did SO WELL out in the Bay Area since the lockdowns started that the non-profits have asked every one of their donors to consider upping their donations by at least 10X their previous amounts, and they are getting it!

When we saw them at Thanksgiving, they had no idea of what it is like for the rest of the country. Their portfolios are way up. Way, way up!


12 posted on 02/15/2022 5:31:33 AM PST by FamiliarFace
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To: Kaslin
lots of blame but the branch covidians and their willingness to send all the children BACKWARD for two yrs now to protect them from supposed boogeyman is the definition of evil...

I grew up thinking that we older people encouraged and enhanced the future of our children, yet here with this covid how many of my fellow oldsters settled for destroying other people's lives....

I've said from day one....anyone vulnerable had every opportunity to self isolate and lay low if they were so afraid.......

why did it come to locking down an entire world....

13 posted on 02/15/2022 5:41:03 AM PST by cherry (;)
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To: Kaslin

The lockdown almost destroyed small business, and may yet do that. Their goal? Look at big media. 90% is owned by six corporations. Big agriculture same thing. They want a small number in control of all things so we can be controlled.


14 posted on 02/15/2022 6:05:19 AM PST by Chauncey Gardiner
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To: the_individual2014

And who did the poor vote for? Oh yeah, the democrats who then proceeded to make the poor even poorer.

They don’t call them useful idiots for nothing.


15 posted on 02/15/2022 8:37:53 AM PST by joma89 (Buy weapons and ammo, folks, and have the will to use them.)
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