bloomberg | The billionaire Tom Golisano was smoking a Padron cigar on his patio in Florida on Tuesday afternoon. He was worried.
“The damages of keeping the economy closed as it is could be
worse than losing a few more people,” said Golisano, founder and
chairman of the payroll processor Paychex Inc. “I have a very large
concern that if businesses keep going along the way they’re going then
so many of them will have to fold.”
“You’re
picking the better of two evils,” said Golisano, who wants people to go
back to their offices in states that have been relatively spared by the
coronavirus, but remain at home in hot spots. “You have to weigh the
pros and cons.”
In New York, where hospitals are at a tipping point and getting pummeled by patients, Governor Andrew Cuomo says the economy shouldn’t be restarted “at the cost of human life” and that he’s developing a plan that “lets younger people get back to work.”
The question is when they should do it.
Trump, guided by a
group of hedge fund and private equity titans, wants the country up and
running again by Easter, though public health officials warn that’s too
soon for a virus that’s killed more than 18,400 and infected at least
400,000 worldwide. Only companies with less than 500 employees are
required to provide paid sick leave for workers out with Covid-19.
Economists from Northwestern University calculated that keeping social
distancing practices in place until cases decline could save 600,000
lives nationwide.
