Governors around the country have ordered businesses to close unless they’re “essential.” But what business doesn’t consider itself essential, if only to the owners and workers?
Some choices are obvious: banks and laundromats, places where people buy groceries and gasoline, prescriptions. But are buying house paint and hardware products “essential” in a time of mass hysteria and draconian, made-up political laws lacking scientific data?
Businesses in energy, transportation, and farming also are deemed essential.
But cannabis dispensaries?
Cannabis stores are claiming their product is essential to help people manage their anxiety during a health and economic pandemic.
The public seems to agree.
Store revenues bumped up from 52 to 130 percent from January to February for the 1,300 dispensaries using the Jane Technologies e-commerce platform. The number of new online customers rose 142 percent.
TRENDPOST: Once again, the overt hypocrisy of politicians who destroyed the lives of tens of millions over the decades for smoking a joint have recently anointed cannabis legal after slapping sky-high taxes on the products.
Indeed, it was a similar action taken by the U.S. in 1933 after lifting prohibition on alcohol after destroying the lives of millions. They slap high tax on the products that should cost consumers much less, so politicians can continue to get their paycheck for not working from the tax revenues they impose on workers.
Gyms are making their argument that physical fitness is essential to health. But, to a world in lockdown, staying home and putting on weight is the law of the land. (See “Stay Home, Eat, and Die” from the 24 March Trends Journal)
Making It Up As They Go Along
Philadelphia designated car repair shops essential but ordered bike shops closed. The city relented when bicyclists pointed to a rise in their numbers as people decided they didn’t want to be clustered with strangers on buses.
In New York State, which is, for all intents and purposes, business dead, his Majesty the Governor has declared that liquor stores are an “essential” business while the full spectrum of others, and the workers they hire that are now out of work, must stay closed.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which represents major business interests that pay off politicians to do what they are told, has asked the Trump administration for clear, uniform national guidelines for which businesses can remain open and those that must close.
