In states across the country, right-wingers are having meltdowns about coronavirus safety measures. They claim they want to quickly reopen the economy to get people working again, despite the ongoing pandemic. But they're forgetting one crucial fact: You can't force an economy to reopen.

With more than 40 million people in this country filing for unemployment, the desire to get back to normal is real and valid. Small businesses are facing huge losses or going out of business entirely. Working people are struggling to pay for necessities like food, housing, and health care. And governments are looking at giant shortfalls in next year's budgets.

These economic pressures are real. But trickle-downers' plan for reopening is based on an economic myth: the belief that, if businesses open and people are forced to return to work, the economy will magically return to normal.

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That's where trickle-downers get everything wrong. Businesses, though heralded as "job creators" by conservatives, don't actually create jobs and stimulate economic growth. Consumers do. By removing social distancing rules and ending the supplemental unemployment benefits that have been a lifeline for tens of millions of Americans, the government can force workers to go back to their jobs. But if consumers don't feel comfortable eating in restaurants or shopping in stores, it won't matter. Without customers, those businesses, though open, will generate no revenue. That's why this plan for "reopening" makes no sense: An economy requires supply and demand. Without demand, there can be no meaningful reopening.

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But here's the inconvenient truth for conservatives: Generating demand, i.e., bringing those consumers back into the economy, is more difficult than forcing people back to work. That's because demand will only return to normal once consumers feel safe - and that will require, through a coronavirus vaccine or other health measures, a better public health situation than we have now. Until then, the only way to prop up the economy is through government spending. Without government spending to supplement normal consumption, the economy will collapse.

Unfortunately, our government has been unable to create the conditions necessary for consumption to return to normal. In lieu of that, the responsible thing to do would be to continue to provide a safety net for Americans until they can fully participate in the economy again. That, however, is something trickle-downers just can't live with.

This is the true reason for the push to "reopen": Conservatives hate the idea of spending on social services like unemployment, even during a pandemic, so they're clamoring to "open up" to give themselves an excuse to cut these vital benefits. Once they do, they'll be able to treat the unemployed with the same contempt they always have, acting as if a person's joblessness is a moral failing instead of a societal one. This is an especially abhorrent attitude considering people have lost their jobs because they or their employer were following public health recommendations to close down business and slow the spread. People shouldn't lose their homes, jobs, and life savings because they did what they were asked to do.

What will be the consequences if conservatives get their way and we open up prematurely? People will be forced back to work, putting their health at risk. However, consumers will be spending at a much lower rate, so the risk will be for nothing. Even more workers may be laid off due to lower demand for goods and services. And without the supplemental unemployment benefits currently provided by the CARES Act set to expire in July, many of these people will fall into total destitution. This will hamper our economy's ability to recover, and it will create unnecessary misery.

But there is, of course, a better way. The government should stop giving billions of dollars of tax breaks to the wealthy and instead prioritize helping everyday people for a change. After all, the wealth of the richest among us has actually skyrocketed during the pandemic. Those who say we cannot afford to continue spending are either wrong or, more likely, lying out of self-interest. The truth is that we afford what we prioritize.

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That's what we think, but what about you? Are you convinced we must continue investing in everyday people to help get through this crisis, or have the trickle-downers won you over with their "reopening" myth? We're trying to collect 2,000 responses before midnight, so let us know:

Which is the better option for managing this crisis?

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