As the amount of recorded coronavirus cases starts to plateau in states such as New York and New Jersey, their governments are starting to look into ways to reopen their economies. To be exact, the states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Delaware plan to work together in order to reopen their economies. According to this New York Times article, the governors of these seven states are “draw[ing] up a plan for when to reopen businesses and schools, and how quickly to allow people to return to work safely”. This is one of two group efforts between states that have been announced in order to address a return to normal life as coronavirus cases start to subside, the other of which is a joint effort between California, Washington, and Oregon. Although an exact timeline has not been established, conditions have improved to the point in which a plan like this is necessary. However, this plan must be handled with extreme care as New York governor Andrew M. Cuomo has stated, “If you do it wrong, it can backfire, and we’ve seen that with other places in the globe”.
The announcement of plans to re-open State economies appears to be in direct opposition to the orders of US President Donald Trump who has stated on twitter that, “It is the decision of the President” to “open up the states” once again. He would follow this up by stating “When somebody is the president of the United States, the[ir] authority is total” at a White House briefing following the announcements from New York and California. However, no legal evidence has been provided to back up these claims. Also, it is the states that have issued things such as the shutdown of public schools. These claims contradict the president’s previous actions as well. The president has left many things in dealing with the virus up to the states, such as whether or not to implement a stay at home lockdown. The main reason that New York wants to reopen its economy due to how their death toll has hit “the lowest one-day death toll in a week” according to this New York Times article.
This connects to the course theme of the individual’s relationship with mass society. The actions of state governments such as imposing lockdowns directly influence the lives of a state’s residents. The plans to reopen businesses greatly impact the lives of people living in a state, especially those who own small businesses and rely on work to make ends meet. Actions such as stay at home lockdowns are made in the interest of public safety in order to make sure the individuals in a state are safe and healthy. However, many individuals have lost their jobs as a result of the actions of the state. The federal government has tried to help these people with programs such as economic stimulation checks in order to make sure people can stay safe and healthy. Also, many individuals have been affected differently by the coronavirus pandemic and their ability to interact with mass society has been limited by things such as stay at home orders from state governments.
discussion question:
Who do you think should have control over matters such as reopening state economies, the federal government or state government?
In an ideal situation, the federal government and the state governments should work together to open up the economy. However, given our current president, this may prove to be difficult. The US covers a large area, so evidently, different regions of the country will be experiencing different situations. Thus, it may be easier to open economies on a gradual basis on a timeline given by a state, or even county, government. This mirrors what the states and counties have already been doing, as it was them that issued the shelter-in-place orders and the shut-downs, not the federal government.
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