It’s Not About Life vs. Money

I am almost never offended by criticism of anything I write. For one thing, I’m acutely aware that there is usually more than one side of an issue. Second, I’m an ardent proponent of the clarifying power of debate.

But I confess to being more than a little irritated by a private email sent to me in response to my first column on the coronavirus. The correspondent began by accusing me of having mentioned the economic impact of a prolonged shutdown because I’m in thrall to the “tropes of all the right-wing Trump supporters that we should revive the economy at the expense of the ‘old, unproductive people.’” He suggested that I was prepared to watch thousands die to re-elect the president.  And finally, I was characterized as being more “Greek (put the old people on the mountain to die) than authentically Jewish.”

My column, in point of fact, was written before President Trump ever uttered a word about reopening the economy. And I have no wish to have my ninety-year-old mother — or my “elderly” self for that matter — left on a mountain top to die.

BUT WHAT I FOUND most frustrating was the framing of the policy choices as between valuing human life or valuing money, i.e., the economy.