It's Time for the Scientific Community to Admit We Were Wrong About COVID and It Cost Lives

I have not said anything about them being effective or not effective, I am simply saying the lock-down guidelines were issued by Donald Trump in a prime time national TV broadcast on March 20, 2020.

Period.

If you didn't like the lock-downs then ask why Trump issued the guide-lines, and why people like DeSantis said "yes sir" and did as instructed.

That's all there is to it. You claim to have college degree, but you sure have a hard time comprehending simple statements.

Because HE DID.

 

You apparently think that Trump and Biden make decisions in a vacuum.

Why do you have no opinion on the effectiveness and economic damage of the lockdowns?

 

Looks like you are an engineer, wonderful. I just retired as a Sales Executive since 1988. I cannot tell you how many times I have made pricing decisions and have been with our CFO, CEO and various VC, peers, etc. discussing margins, COGS and pricing strategies. Not one single time in my entire career did anyone make the claim that our COGs must include potential future income taxes on net profits. Not one single time! So you might want to think again about which economics expert created that 101 micro class you took because that expert did not understand how a business really works. If your reference to 101 was a macro class, then the same applies. Which economist dominated your studies? That will tell us all we need to know about your understanding of econ 101.

 

Corporate income tax rates (local, state, and federal) are always factored into the sales price of goods and services. Each company determines what profit margin they require based on market risk considerations. The companies also rely on market analysis to determine how many can be sold at what price. If the costs of production which includes taxes on gross profits are too high the product will not be produced. This is the corollary effect of high corporate income tax rates. Many helpful products are never produced.

ECON 101

 

Biden is not denying saying it, meaning he owns his comments, right or wrong. Trump, - well he NEVER owns his words or actions, which is as weak as it gets.

We all know there was economic damage. Why does that need to be validated to you? Did they save lives? Most likely they did, but given the price tag, I doubt we'll take the same approach (in the same extent) as Trump did.

 

When has Trump denied displaying the recommendations of the medical experts?

The lockdowns did not save lives. They did rob low income kids of ~ 2 years of education and resulted in spikes in overdose excess deaths among many other harmful results.

The entire idea of a lockdown is absurd. Those at risk should have specifically been protected instead of isolating everyone and hoping for the best.

 

When has he owned the fact that he issued lock-down guidelines? All I heard was him blaming everyone except himself, - the governors, the mayors, China, CDC, Fauci, Europe, Trudeau, immigrants, you name it.

Here in Florida they closed even golf courses and boat ramps, and that was an overreaction indeed. I mean.......golf courses. DeSantis blames it on Trump, and Trump blames everyone else, including DeSantis. Its like a bunch of people standing in a circle and everyone points to the guy on their right,

 

The Governors continued it. The poster based on the medical experts recommendations was for 30 days.

DeSantis along with Chisty Noem was one of the most proactive governors in terms of protecting those most at risk and reopening the economy and schools. You are lucky to have him. Here in California we have the opposite - Gavin Newsom.


“Two key aspects of his management of the pandemic were perfect for me to highlight in Florida. To protect Floridians, the governor had enacted the targeted protection of the elderly I had spoken about. For instance, he set up two dozen “COVID-only” facilities for residents who tested positive and forbade hospital discharges to nursing homes. That prevented the reintroduction of the virus back into nursing homes—something several other governors failed to do, thereby tragically killing thousands of elderly people. DeSantis had further prioritized protective equipment and more frequent testing of nursing home residents and staff. He also admitted his earlier mistake of shutting down elective medical procedures.

In addition to his focus on protecting the elderly, the governor wanted us to highlight school openings and visit some of his state’s colleges. He and his education commissioner, Richard Corcoran, had issued a directive in July that all school districts should be reopened for in-person learning by the end of August. He was fully aware that the “break-outs” on university campuses highlighted by the media were misleading, because they were almost exclusively test-positive cases in healthy and asymptomatic young people with almost no risk of serious illness. At that point, tens of thousands of cases had been detected as students returned to campuses, but none had even been hospitalized. Meanwhile the Trump administration had partnered well with the State of Florida in providing economic aid, school-reopening support, medical supplies, technical assistance, and personnel.”

— A Plague Upon Our House: My Fight at the Trump White House to Stop COVID from Destroying America by Scott W. Atlas
https://a.co/6p35e7u

 

O boy....first of all, corporate income taxes are levied after a company shows a profit and comes out of the profit after expenses and depreciation. That is true for all income statements and companies. Secondly, other taxes based upon profit are calculated in the same way for state and local income tax purposes. No company includes potential tax liability on profits in their COGs analysis. That is basic accounting 101. Lastly, the price the market will bear could care less what your profit goals are, they will buy your product because they see a need or value in it at that price. Very few products are inelastic, most if not all the market is elastic so you can try to charge as much as you want but the market will tell you if it will accept it. Taxes that are included in COGs are sales taxes, excise taxes, tariffs (Trump tax on US customers) etc. In some cases you can avoid those taxes when you buy goods and services but most companies end up paying those and they become COGs. Again, income taxes are levied at the bottom of the income statement....

EBIT and EBITDA are both measures of a business's profitability. EBIT is net income before interest and taxes are deducted. EBITDA additionally excludes depreciation and amortization. EBIT is often used as a measure of operating profit; in some cases, it's equal to the GAAP metric operating income.

 

What about low inflation do you hate?
What about low prices do you hate?
What about staying out of wars do you hate?
What about "made in the USA" doyou hate?
What about supporting feasible fuels for energy generation do you hate?
What about a secure border do you hate?
What about "law and order" do you hate?

 

I'd rather have you pick out something that you disagree with in my OP and discuss that instead.

 

Corporate tax rates are a very important part of a business plan. And of course tax rates are included in determining the prices of the products that a company sells. ECON 101

 

Congratulations on having a story from a single company. I wonder why you think that applies to companies in general. I'm a business owner, not an engineer.

 

All you have to do to understand how corporate taxation affects corporation is to Google it. Here is a sample from the Tax Foundation:

https://taxfoundation.org/corporate-tax-cut-economic-growth/

 

I looked it up, found the usual suspects.....CEOs with an agenda....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_Foundation

Of course a think tank founded by CEOs in the 30s would be against taxes. Your current consensus among economists is the tell line here, there are very few consensus opinions in the world of macro economics. As far as the record of the last 30 years of tax policy leading to the current economies, in the prior world of higher taxes we had a thriving middle class, funded enormous infrastructure projects, had free public colleges and had a far less unequal distribution of wealth. Unions were very strong and the gap between the upper and middle class was not near so great. Sorry but your opinion here which you believe is based upon facts is nothing but ideology disguised as economics.

 

Funny stuff, I have been in sales management since 88 for a variety of companies big and small, we all priced goods and services the same way. Just admit that everything you have written here is not first hand information from a true executive responsible for a P/L but the ideas of a ideology minded seeker of economics that suits your personal bias. Thats the thing about macro, you can shop for an economist just like all the other conservatives have shopped for them over time. But one thing is always their problem, they always destroy the lower and middle classes and favor the rich.

 

It’s standard practice. And has nothing to do with my opinion. But believe what you will.

 

If you think that businesses do not take tax rates into account for their business planning you are mistaken. But that’s out of my control.

 

The ability of corporations to provide useful products at low prices due to the innovation and competition required to stay in business has been responsible for the great advancement in the standard of living for the lower and middle income quintiles. Capitalism has brought more people out of poverty than any other economic system.

You were in sales. The minimum acceptable pricing taking into consideration corporate income tax rates is determined by the CFO staff. They have all this worked before anyone in sales is consulted.

 

So you think you know how businesses plan yet have never been in a position to make those decisions and think someone who has is wrong. I get it. I just demolished a little part of your ideology and you will not admit it. Tax planning is essential to any business decision but we have been talking about income taxes. Income taxes are on profits and are not part of COGs. Unlike you, I have made these calls for decades. I have never, ever heard anyone talk about taxes when making pricing decisions. Oops, we did think about it once the orange buffoon levied tariffs on Chinese imports.

 

Bulloney. Technology advances are the primary reason our lives are better superficially than they were when I was a kid. But tax policy only made some fabulously wealthy and everyone else a friggin serf. Sorry but Reaganomics worked perfectly, the rich got richer and everyone else just had to work harder to stay in place. My family was middle class on 12k a year, mom was home, four kids, house, car, food on the table. Your brand of economics destroyed that life for all of us.

 

You have demolished nothing. Businesses and corporations definitely include corporate tax rates in their business planning to determine which location is best suited for production. ECON 101. Can't help it if you were not in the loop.

 

GDP grew at ~ 4% per year on average under Reagan. Many started at low income levels and advanced thanks to the economic growth. The real suffering took place under that Carter administration where application of the bogus Phillips Curve resulted in high levels of unemployment and ludicrously high levels of inflation. Reagan had to force a short recession resulting from increasing interest rates to bring inflation under control. Then Reaganomic economic principles (aka supply side) acted to produce 7 years of record prosperity. Clinton benefitted from supply side economics as well as his chief financial advisor Stiglitz acknowledged. Clinton also benefitted from Reagan's defense spending which contributed to the demise of the USSR. Clinton cut defense spending to 3% of GDP contributing to the budget surpluses. Also contributing ~ 25% of the multi year surplus was the reduction of the capital gains tax rate from 28% to 20% which resulted in large tax revenue gains and also economic growth by reducing the tax penalty incurred by moving capital from losing industries to winners.

Believe what you want - I can't control that. Investment is the major contributor to economic growth which progressively improves the standard of living for the low and middle income quintiles. Low tax rates maximizes investment. Those in the higher income quintiles invest their money instead of devising accounting strategies to shield their capital from high tax rates. Progressives refuse to even attempt to understand this. Please explain how high tax rates results in maximizing economic growth. Redistribution does do a thing to increase economic growth. But that is what progressive want.

 

I don't even know what this means:

"Ummm, they didn't just 'overstate evidence' and 'mislead the public', nor were there 'scientific mistakes' (whatever THAT means)... They outright LIED, repeatedly, without shame, about masks, about covid, about the covid jabs, about natural immunity, and about damn near everything covid related. They pitted family memberagainst family member. They didn't let family members visit with their ailing loved one in hospitals, they forced many millions of Americans to choose between the jabs and their jobs (after they THEMSELVES initially chose to refuse to get the jabs because they didn't trust 'Trump's vaccine'), they wanted unvaccinated people to die (and also didn't want unvaccinated people to have access to healthcare as well as numerous social events)."​

What lies are you talking about? The lied about the effectiveness of good PPE. I don't know who told what lie about covid. I know Trump lied.

You can't defend the Orange Oaf over covid. So what did he do you can defend?

 

It mostly already is.