Dennis Prager Show - What is the Cost of the Quarantine?
Aired: 2020-03-19
Duration: 04:23


=== The Price We Pay (04:23) ===

[00:00:00]  As I told you, the greatest question you could ask to figure out what to do in life, little things and big things, ask what is the price?
[00:00:15]  That's the question to be asked.
[00:00:21]  And there's a price paid for...
[00:00:27]  Playing a video game for two hours.
[00:00:31]  Alright?
[00:00:32]  You don't get to read.
[00:00:33]  You don't get to play a musical instrument.
[00:00:36]  I mean, most people don't think that way, but that's a price.
[00:00:40]  Does the price pay if you play a musical instrument?
[00:00:43]  And you won't be reading.
[00:00:44]  I mean, I totally get it.
[00:00:46]  But ask, what is the price?
[00:00:50]  And society is paying a big price.
[00:00:53]  So what is the price of your being home all the time?
[00:00:57]  And not going to work where, you know, if you keep your three feet distance or whatever it is, the likelihood of your getting contaminated is very small.
[00:01:09]  The best is the enemy of the better.
[00:01:13]  So I wish more people did go to work.
[00:01:19]  Now, I may be advocating something that will hurt some people.
[00:01:23]  I understand that.
[00:01:26]  But I look at the odds.
[00:01:29]  You know what?
[00:01:29]  I don't buy lottery tickets.
[00:01:31]  I'm not against people buying them, but I don't buy lottery tickets because the odds are overwhelmingly against me.
[00:01:38]  I think rationally.
[00:01:40]  The odds are overwhelmingly against you getting the virus if you go to work.
[00:01:46]  So I live by that.
[00:01:49]  I'm here.
[00:01:52]  That was my point.
[00:01:56]  Trump urges $1 trillion a deal.
[00:01:59]  Headline, Wall Street Journal.
[00:02:03]  $1 trillion.
[00:02:05]  A trillion is $1,000 billion.
[00:02:10]  Virus-driven economic slowdown prompts a U.S. stimulus proposal.
[00:02:15]  Fed also plans loans.
[00:02:19]  My friends, I don't know the right answer.
[00:02:23]  On this quarantine, I don't know.
[00:02:26]  The shutting down of all Western economies.
[00:02:29]  We don't know the price yet that will be paid, and we're not given any time limit.
[00:02:37]  See, this worries me.
[00:02:41]  Worries me that the health officials, who in my opinion should not be in charge of decision making.
[00:02:51]  It's like the Commander-in-Chief of the United States Armed Forces is a civilian.
[00:02:58]  Isn't that interesting?
[00:03:00]  Yes, because the President of the United States is the Commander-in-Chief.
[00:03:04]  He's above all generals and admirals, etc.
[00:03:08]  But when it comes to this stuff, the health people are the policy people.
[00:03:15]  They shouldn't be.
[00:03:17]  They should just be, like the military, in the case of the commander-in-chief, give information.
[00:03:24]  But here's what I want to know.
[00:03:28]  What number of deaths will necessitate going beyond 15 days?
[00:03:34]  You have to tell us in advance.
[00:03:37]  You can't fly by the seat of your pants.
[00:03:40]  I don't know your criteria.
[00:03:45]  We were told exponential.
[00:03:47]  We were told we're two weeks behind Italy.
[00:03:49]  What if we don't turn out to be two weeks behind Italy?
[00:03:52]  What if it isn't exponential death?
[00:03:54]  Are you going to still crush the economy of America?
[00:03:59]  Crushing the economy is not an abstraction.
[00:04:01]  It's crushing lives.
[00:04:06]  I know people devastated already.
[00:04:10]  Already devastated financially.
[00:04:16]  Read my column.
[00:04:17]  It's up from yesterday at Town Hall.
[00:04:20]  You can see it at mythenisprager.com.