Las Vegas Mayor Describes Business Shutdown “Total Insanity”
Jose Nino
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On April 15, 2020, Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman declared that the closure of non-essential businesses in Las Vegas is “total insanity.”
At the start of Wednesday’s City Council meeting, Mayor Goodman said that “this shutdown has become one of total insanity.” She continued, “For there is no backup of data as to why we are shutdown from the start. No plan in place how to move through the shutdown or how to even come out of it.”
According to the experts Goodman allegedly spoke to, the Wuhan Virus is “not going away.”
“It’s not going to be going away this month, next month, and much like the flu and other viruses that have impacted populations around the world, this virus, or a derivative there of, will be part of what we work through going forward,” Mayor Goodman stated.
Goodman called attention to how Nevada is a state of 3.2 million people with most of its population concentrated in Southern Nevada. Namely, 2.6 million of those people live in the southern section of the state.
“Tragically, we have already lost, to this virus, 128 individuals in Nevada,” she remarked. Goodman expressed her condolences to those who have experienced the loss of friends and loved ones to the virus.
“But let me tell you, with a population of 3.2 million living in Nevada, those whom we have lost represent less than a half of one percent of our population, which has caused us to shut down our entire state and everything that makes Nevada unique,” Mayor Goodman stated.
Goodman noted that of the approximately 900,000 people who are now out of work, 300,000 have already filed for unemployment. “These are families that no longer have the ability to buy food for their children and other loved ones. Pay their bills. Pay their rent. Pay their mortgage. Pay their car payment. Or enjoy the life that they had prior to this shut down,” she stated.
“Small businesses and those on week-to-week paychecks have been forced to close. Entire savings that were invested in these small businesses are being lost or are have already been lost. Hotels and restaurants, our entire tourism and convention industry business, has been shut down,” Goodman added. “It makes no sense. It makes no sense.”
Mayor Goodman pressed Governor Sisolak to reopen the state of Nevada.
“From my perspective, we must open our city. We must open Southern Nevada and we must open the state of Nevada,” Goodman said. “We can not live, going forward, with the medical and health industry telling us that this virus is going to be around longer than a month or two, maybe even a year.”
“We can not keep our heads in the sand and think it’s going to go away. We are adults with brains, who can know what to do, to wash our hands, to take all precautions not to spread this disease. But we can not put our heads in the sand and think it’s going to go away.”
“From my perspective, I am asking, open the city, open Clark County, open the state. For heaven’s sake, for being closed is killing us already and killing Las Vegas, our industry, our convention and tourism business that we have all worked so hard to build. The longer we wait to do this, the more impossible it will be to recover and return to the home we all know and love,” Goodman declared.
As more people become unemployed, there will likely be demands from elected officials and disgruntled workers to reopen the economy.
Indeed, the Wuhan virus (a disease of globalization) illustrates the need to strengthen borders.
However, shutting down businesses is excessive.
A balance will need to be struck that recognizes the dangers of globalism, while allowing nation’s economies to function with as minimal negative externalities as possible.
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