Pirate's Cove

The NY Times Editorial Board thinks they’re on to something

Best Treatment for the Coronavirus? Paid Sick Leave

The Federal Reserve did what it could Tuesday to offset the growing economic impact of the coronavirus by announcing a supersize reduction in its benchmark interest rate — the first time the Fed has acted between its regularly scheduled meetings since the financial crisis in 2008.

But the Fed is ill equipped to limit the effect of a global pandemic alone. Lower interest rates may eventually soothe financial markets and help to hold down borrowing costs, but the Fed can’t speed the reopening of Chinese factories or reverse Facebook’s decision to cancel an annual developers conference that last year brought 5,000 visitors to San Francisco.

The feces and used drug needles, along with all the homeless living and peeing in the streets, probably didn’t help, either.

The real work falls on the rest of the government. The first step should have been simple: ensuring that testing for the coronavirus was readily available and, better yet, free. But even after weeks of lead time for the virus’s inevitable arrival, access to testing remains woefully inadequate as the domestic death toll rose to nine on Tuesday.

Well, first they had to actually come up with a test for it. They don’t magically appear.

At this point, the crisis also demands unorthodox solutions. To restrict the spread of the coronavirus, the government needs to put limits on commerce. The best way to protect people, and the economy, is to limit economic activity. That is an unfortunate but inescapable truth. Public health officials will need to impose quarantines, businesses will need to cancel meetings. And most of all, the problem now and going forward is making sure that sick workers stay home. That means not forcing employees to choose between penury and working while coughing.

Now, just imagine that President Trump institutes quarantines and stuff: the same editorial board will freak out. Consider the freakout when it was Obama and both Dem and GOP governors trying to have quarantines for Ebola. Now magnify that by about 10.

Congress can help by mandating that workers receive paid time off if they fall ill, or if they need to care for an ailing family member. Such a policy is necessary both to impede the spread of the virus and its economic harm. Roughly one-quarter of workers in the private sector — about 32 million people — are not entitled to any paid sick days. Absent legislation, they face a choice between endangering the health of co-workers and customers and calling in sick and losing their wages and perhaps also their jobs.

Government required private market paid sick leave is something the Modern Socialists have been pushing, because they really just want to pander to low wage workers to get their votes. This is the politicization of the Coronavirus to push it again.

But, just because you have paid sick leave doesn’t mean you’ll take it. Some companies are great about telling sick people to stay home, others, not so much. At my current company the boss wants you to stay home if you are sick, and sets the bar by staying home himself. And telling the managers to go home if sick. My previous company was kind of middle of the road, since we would have really sick managers working and spreading the sickness. Before that, they made you feel bad if you took the day off sick.

If the federal government fails to contain the spread of the coronavirus, and the economic outlook darkens, such a broad-based stimulus may well become necessary. But targeted policies — like sick days — are likely to remain the most effective form of response.

And, of course, the policy would stick around forever. Because it’s not about Coronavirus, it’s about the Government dictating how companies operate, because you know even more policies would be added on, and pandering to those in low wage jobs which usually do not have paid leave.

You know the best policy? People staying away from areas with Coronavirus. Not traveling when you’ve been in contact with those areas. Because the spread seems to be more about people who are failing personally rather than people who won’t stay home when sick because they don’t get paid for it.