Opinion: Is New Jersey Dead After the Lockdown?

Yesterday I read an important article by one of the owners of Stand Up NY, James Altucher, who wrote “NYC Is Dead Forever. Here’s Why.”  He detailed reasons about the lack of human social interaction, empty office space, restaurants unable to reopen with no people on the streets, etc. The article got me thinking about how Americans have embraced fear overwhelmingly and as a result, nothing can get back to the way it was before “15 days to slow the spread.”  Remember that? Well it’s now day 155.

I remembered being on stage at the iconic comedy club in January before the world shut down. What an incredible opportunity to stand and perform on the same stage that the greats like Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock launched their careers.

How many young comics throughout New York City survive just through grit and hustle going from club to club grabbing whatever slot they can to show the crowd what they can do? All of that is gone now.

Restaurants, clubs, theaters. All human social interaction has been sacrificed on the alter of fear and profits for the medical establishment. It’s a crime to see children having to sit apart and mask up as if socializing with their friends is somehow toxic. Never mind that children are not "super-spreaders" and when they get coronavirus it will likely not even produce serious symptoms beyond the normal cold/flu for most, let alone cause them to be hospitalized. Actually if you are younger than 45, you’re pretty much in the clear.  target="_blank"Look at the actual numbers instead of relying on agenda-driven "studies".

But facts be damned. The facts about the pandemic peaking in April and then trickling to near nothing by June only get in the way of the narrative pushed by leading Democrats and complicit Republicans who have their eye on power and your money. In New Jersey, indoor dining is still prohibited and the best that the opposition party has to say is we should open with limited capacity. Clearly none of them have ever run a successful restaurant. Now the talk is all about higher taxes and more borrowing to “save” NJ from the multi-billion dollar budget shortfall caused by the lockdown.

So thousands of small businesses crushed and those left standing will have to pay for the mismanagement and increased spending in Trenton? How about the conversation about a statewide surcharge on your home value? Lower income coming into your household budget and higher tax burdens going to the government is not a sustainable path. That, plus the crushing blow to our normal interactions with the tension over masks and the impossibility of getting back to normal as long as everyone is masked up and distant. Kids and adults being taught to fear one another and keep your distance or you might die! News flash: We’re all gonna die eventually.

There are many risks we face as humans. Disease, war, poverty, famine among them. The one thing that has gotten us through all of these is our resilience and in America, our desire to be free and determine the level of risk we are willing to tolerate for ourselves and our family. The idea that our constitutional liberties are now subject to executive orders from unscrupulous "crisis actors" would have been unacceptable only a few short years ago. If our downtown/main street commerce remains severely limited and our schools open as fear centers resembling prisons more than education centers then New Jersey will surely be following in NYC’s footsteps soon. Can NJ be saved?