Jay and I are very, very fortunate in these troubled times in that our jobs are about as secure as a job can be these days. With the idiocy that has been implemented across the land, even health care workers and doctors are losing their jobs because clinics and hospitals have cleared their decks and schedules of everything non- zombie flu related and the ol' coronavirus just isn't striking down the numbers that had been hyped. So clinics, doctors offices and hospitals across the land are standing empty, with nothing to do and no money coming in...
We're in the middle of a global health crisis and health care workers are getting laid off. That alone should tell you that we're handling this incorrectly.
KICK OPEN THE DOORS OF THE ECONOMY.
sorry. It just pops out ever few hours.
But as I said, Jay and I are fine.
Jay is a tenured teacher in the public university system. The state politicians have been in the pocket of the union for so long they think it's the whole universe. If you took a poll of Minnesota politicians and asked them whether they'd rather be stuck on an elevator for 10 hours with someone infected with C19 and nothing to eat but live bats or piss off the teacher's union, every single one of them would show enthusiasm for bat sushi.
My "Job" hasn't changed a bit. I work out of a home studio and G., who owns the shop, has gone to all online and phone orders. Even though I'm only doing special orders right now, demand for my services has stayed fairly level. Needlepoint is a very therapeutic hobby. It's relaxing, tactilely satisfying and you can watch as you produce something beautiful. It's also insanely addictive. Stitchers, stuck at home without a canvas to work on, would be worse than drunks suddenly dropped in the middle of Utah. I'm not worried about run-ing out of orders.
I was going to run out of canvas. The problem is that my supplier is based in LA and they get the good stuff from Italy. Italy is a mess and the whole of California shut down a couple of weeks ago.
We're not talking about the 'needlepoint canvas' you can buy in rolls at hobby or art supply stores. That stuff is crap and a real stitcher would sooner use twine as thread than bother with a design on that. Hand painted, custom needlepoint is done on heavy duty cotton mono filament needlepoint canvas that retails for well over $50.00 a yard. I get it wholesale but even so, the price of the canvas is one of the many reasons why decent needlepoint is so expensive.
Here's a little lesson in economics and why price controls cause shortages:
I pay x amount for canvas, paint, brushes, electricity, studio space etc. This is known as 'overhead'. Yes, my studio is in my house but I still pay for it. Nothing is free. "Free" means someone else paid for it. Since Jay and I pay our mortgage, we're paying for the space in which I work. I do tons of Christmas ornaments, the smallest of which uses a piece of canvas approximately 6x6". I know exactly how much I paid for those 36sq inches. The smallest ornaments I paint cost X amount. If the government insisted that a 3x3" piece of needlepoint should only sell for X-Y, I wouldn't paint them any more because I'd be losing Y with every one I painted. Voila! No more 3x3" ornaments.
I'm opposed to laws banning 'price gouging' under extreme circumstances, too. Because I can only paint for so many hours a day without my hand cramping up or my eyes falling out of my head, if ten people want me to paint for them and I only have the time, energy or supplies to do five of them, I'm going to paint for the people who offer me the most money. The rest will have to wait until I get around to them.
Imagine there was a tornado and everyone in town lost their roofs. The roofing company in town can only roof so many houses at once. There's another roofing company in the next town over but hauling all their supplies and people to your town isn't cheap and it's against the law for them to charge more; that's called 'gouging'. So, you just have to sit in your roofless house until the local guy can get to you. How much bird poop has to pile up on your bedroom floor before you begin to suspect that 'anti-gouging' laws aren't protecting you nearly as well as a new roof would? How many rain storms would you be willing to sit through before you'd be willing to pay any amount, if someone would please just come and put a damned roof on your house?
Anti-gouging laws only protect people who don't actually need anything. But politicians love them because they feel like they're protecting 'the little guy'. The 'little guy' in these scenarios is always you, by the way. You; because you're incapable of prioritizing how to spend your own money.
I had called my supplier right when I realized that I was running low on two of the sizes I carry (I carry 3). But the phone rang and rang...I left a voice mail, figuring when ever they did reopen, I'd be at the top of their call back list.
Friday, I called again, just to leave another message. ( In the meantime, I still have several yards of #13, which just happens to be what most of my orders are for.) To my delight, someone answered the phone!!
I ordered both #16 and #18 in double the amount I usually order.
So I'm in business till the cows come home!
So Jay and I will be fine through this hysteria. But it still makes me mad as hell that others have been forced to close their businesses and lose their jobs for the illusion of 'safety'. Is the plan to stay isolated until folks in their 80s stop dying?
You see the flaw in that plan, don't you?
Lots of people say "ooh, better safe than sorry!"
There's nothing safe about what we're doing. And if it doesn't stop VERY SOON, we're all going to be sorry.
There are worse things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than zombie flu.