Originally Posted by
Clyde1820
More than seven billion people, a couple hundred thousand confirmed infections, a few thousand deaths ... and planet Earth's global economy is directed to be mostly turned off. I wonder what anthropologists and others will think of us in 1000yrs when they look back to this time.
Get back to us next week with with new numbers. Perhaps go online and find out about exponential growth.
The point is which is worse, doing nothing and letting several hundred thousand people in the US alone die and quickly get through the economic recovery, or stretch out the economic dread and limit the number of people dead? It may be that the number of people dying prematurely from economic collapse is as many or greater than the first option. A virtual Sophie's choice? I don't know the answer to that one. Our world is so intricately connected that I don't think anyone really knows what happens when parts of the economy completely collapse. Being in a manufacturing environment most of my adult working life I can't tell you how many times a part or assembly wasn't available for some weird reason - cleaning line was down due to a fire, raw material for a certain part is single sourced, a typhoon stops shipments for a week or two...it's a "kingdom for a nail" situation everywhere you think to look.
Edit: worldwide we're now at nearly 10,000 deaths.
Originally Posted by
Drillium Dude
How do some of you guys think the tubes and whatnot get to the bike shops? By bike?
Doh.
I'm all for less traffic, less noise, less pollution, less crazy/impatient/distracted/take your pick drivers - but hey, if the trucks can't deliver the tubes and whatnot to the shop, there's no stock. No stock, no reason to be open. I'm sure there are lots of people - cyclists, too - who can't wait to see the next batch of trucks drive up to their local supermarket with a load of TP. I'm on of 'em
DD
Same could be said for grocery stores, except their inventory is a few weeks of food at best. Note, however, that right now bike shops have tubes and whatnot
in stock and could keep bikes up and running while they still have inventory. Gas stations and auto repair stores will still be able to receive stuff, because they're considered essential, at least in the Bay Area, which was my example. I'd venture that almost all of us know someone who only uses bicycles for transportation, and may be only a broken part or flat tire away from being able to commute to work as a fireman, doctor, nurse, grocery store employee...
So, if auto repair stores can stay open, why can't bike shops? Philly seems to be an exception.