President Trump has made it clear that he wants a soft restart to the economy as soon as possible. With tens of millions of people jobless, who could blame him? But even if Trump had the unilateral authority to reopen the economy, which, as a reminder, he doesn’t, it likely wouldn’t matter much.
New polling from Gallup reveals a nation even more hesitant to return to life as usual than it was at the end of March. Just 1 in 5 adults wishes to return immediately to normal activities, with 71% wanting the nation to “wait to see what happens with the coronavirus before resuming.” Predictably, rural residents report a higher desire to reopen the economy immediately, but only slightly so. Republicans are nearly three times as likely to want to reopen the nation immediately than Democrats.
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But the divide seems to end there. For example, both those still working and those out of a job report an identical rate of wishing to wait and see what happens with the coronavirus: 71%.
You might expect that it’s a lot easier for those capable of working remotely to want our national shutdown to continue. After all, in addition to their continued paychecks, they disproportionately enjoy high incomes and savings. More than 7 in 10 workers earning at least $180,000 annually report being able to work remotely, and more than half of those earning between $90,000 and $180,000 do so as well, whereas most earning less than $90,000 per year cannot work remotely. Yet, even those unable to work chose the “wait and see” option in equal measure.
This extends back in time as well. Even prior to the government mandating restaurant closures, OpenTable reservation data indicated that rates of eating out had plummeted.
In short, it’s impossible to imagine even the complete repeal of coronavirus restrictions prompting people to go back to normal. No government edict can easily restore confidence in public health.
