[2006alum]

I agree, I shouldn't have that unique awareness, but my perspective is different than yours.  But awareness doesn't matter.  After all, you're aware of it as a statistic, perhaps some of your best friends may even be in that 51% (doubt it), but you and others similarly situated clearly don't care about the misery of that lesser half.  

I think remaining and future generations are more important than us short-timers.  Clearly, you and other well-off people who can withstand an economic downturn do not.

I don't talk about my personal circumstances in this forum, but I have no idea why you think that automatically means I'm well-off and can withstand this economic downturn any better than anyone else. Thanks to student loans, my net worth is many tens of thousands sub-zero. I'm nearly 15 years out of undergrad but due to the nature of my profession, I've never once had a six figure salary. I'd need more than two hands to count the number of friends and relatives who've been furloughed, had to shutter their businesses, and/or who have already reached out to other family members (including me) for financial support. I've spent much of the past 10 days triaging among friends and family to figure out how they can pay their rent/business expenses/life expenses just to to get to May 1. Trust me when I say I am familiar with how bad this already is. Don't assume that because some of us don't choose to talk about it that we aren't also suffering and know, first-hand, how badly hurt others are.

And insofar as I am part of that "remaining and future generation," I have no idea why you think I don't care about my own generation. I just recognize that what hits grandma is also going to hit me, and that we are all in this together. The notion that we can sacrifice the old and ailing while the rest of us skates through is totally unsupported by the data.

But I will return to my main point: nothing in your last post provided your proposed solution. You don't seem to want to offer one. You said earlier you're not saying we should do nothing, but you aren't saying what we should be doing. So unless you want to propose an alternative course, I don't see a lot of value in complaining about the solutions that are being implemented and/or offered.

[2006alum]

I agree, I shouldn't have that unique awareness, but my perspective is different than yours.  But awareness doesn't matter.  After all, you're aware of it as a statistic, perhaps some of your best friends may even be in that 51% (doubt it), but you and others similarly situated clearly don't care about the misery of that lesser half.  

I think remaining and future generations are more important than us short-timers.  Clearly, you and other well-off people who can withstand an economic downturn do not.

I don't talk about my personal circumstances in this forum, but I have no idea why you think that automatically means I'm well-off and can withstand this economic downturn any better than anyone else. Thanks to student loans, my net worth is many tens of thousands sub-zero. I'm nearly 15 years out of undergrad but due to the nature of my profession, I've never once had a six figure salary. I'd need more than two hands to count the number of friends and relatives who've been furloughed, had to shutter their businesses, and/or who have already reached out to other family members (including me) for financial support. I've spent much of the past 10 days triaging among friends and family to figure out how they can pay their rent/business expenses/life expenses just to to get to May 1. Trust me when I say I am familiar with how bad this already is. Don't assume that because some of us don't choose to talk about it that we aren't also suffering and know, first-hand, how badly hurt others are.

And insofar as I am part of that "remaining and future generation," I have no idea why you think I don't care about my own generation. I just recognize that what hits grandma is also going to hit me, and that we are all in this together. The notion that we can sacrifice the old and ailing while the rest of us skates through is totally unsupported by the data.

But I will return to my main point: nothing in your last post provided your proposed solution. You don't seem to want to offer one. You said earlier you're not saying we should do nothing, but you aren't saying what we should be doing. So unless you want to propose an alternative course, I don't see a lot of value in complaining about the solutions that are being implemented and/or offered.