As many European countries head back into lockdown and there is talk that Joe Biden might institute something similar in the U.S. if he becomes president, concerns about the repercussions are growing louder by the day.
A survey by the Office of National Statistics of England’s first lockdown found that the biggest drops in pay and hours were registered at the lower end of the earnings scale. Part-time workers and young people were hit especially hard, and 2 million people earned less than the minimum wage there thanks to furloughs.
And yet England is in lockdown again, even as the prospect of a double-dip recession hangs over Europe and the U.S. It’s blue collar workers and the self-employed who are suffering the most. Many of those who are out of work are shop workers, waiters, bartenders and hairdressers. In short, those who have to leave their home to work are finding their jobs in jeopardy, while those working in the better-paid “knowledge economy” are suffering less.
In The Guardian, Julian Coman said of England: “Covid has widened the already yawning divide between better-off graduates and the non-college educated. Regional inequalities have deepened and familiar tensions between north and south re-ignited. Economic desperation has corroded the sense of national unity that prevailed during the first wave."
What's in store for the U.S.?
In the U.S., we can expect a similar outcome should we be plunged into a widespread lockdown as Biden has been indicating he may order if he ends up being our next president.
In an ABC News interview, Biden told David Muir that his plans for overcoming COVID-19 essentially entail closing everything up again. He said: “I would shut it down; I would listen to the scientists.”
He added that he would be prepared to do whatever is necessary to save lives because the country can’t move forward until the virus is controlled, saying: “That is the fundamental flaw of this administration’s thinking to begin with. In order to keep the country running and moving and the economy growing, and people employed, you have to fix the virus, you have to deal with the virus.”
The consequences for Americans could be severe. A military vet business owner in Northern California, Carlos Zapata, told county leaders at a board of supervisors meeting that pandemic restrictions were threatening the lives of his family and other people he knew, and that he believed they wouldn’t be peaceful for long.
He said that at first everyone was concerned about the disease, but now families are starving, and the tide is going to turn. “Right now, we’re being peaceful, and you better be happy we’re good citizens, that we’re peaceful citizens, but it’s not gonna be peaceful much longer. And this isn’t a threat — I’m not a criminal, I’ve never been a criminal but I’m telling you real good citizens are going to turn into real concerned and revolutionary citizens real soon.”
He said that he’s been to war for the U.S. and would be willing to fight again in order to save the country, adding: “If it has to be against our own citizens, it will happen. And there’s a million people like me, and you won’t stop us.”
Creating deeper divisions in our country is only going to bring us a lot more of what we saw this summer with the Black Lives Matter protests. People were angry, and their violence was almost as contagious as the virus we’re contending with – and it could take a lot more lives if left unchecked.
The left doesn’t see that – or do they? After all, if people get violent, they can use it as an excuse to tighten gun control or even confiscate guns outright. And if people complain about wanting the lockdown to end, it will give them the perfect excuse to force vaccinations on everyone. A lockdown would be a golden opportunity for the left to control people like never before.
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