"They should be free"

and "we need assistance" and "we can't keep going unless..."

One of the latest demands here has been for free "rapid antigen tests". The argument has been that they are free in other places so they should be free here. Perhaps they should be, perhaps they should not be. This has been added to demands for financial assistance for small businesses struggling in the pandemic and that certain venues be allowed to reopen without restrictions because, without this, they won't be able to keep going.

I don't envy those trying to balance all this out. I am sorry for people who have been heavily financially impacted by the pandemic, genuinely sorry. It must be devastating to see something you have worked so hard to achieve disintegrate because of something totally outside your control. I know people who are now unemployed because the pandemic has meant their workplaces have "let them go".  There has been some  financial assistance but they are struggling, really struggling. 

And all the time there are demands for more financial assistance. There are complaints that not enough help is being given. I often agree it would be good if people could be given more help. We should be able to ensure that people have the necessities of life - food and housing in particular. 

But the pub industry is complaining about "reduced numbers" in their "gaming areas" even when those numbers are higher per square metre than those allowed in a night club. They complained when they were told that their patrons had to be seated. They were among the loudest voices demanding that "the state be opened up" and now they are making the loudest complaints about the effect that opening up has had on their businesses - and demanding compensation.

I have no doubt that there are researchers working on papers about the financial impacts of the pandemic. There is surely plenty to be said. I suspect there have been businesses which were on the brink of failure which did not survive long and others which, without the pandemic, might have lasted but would not have thrived. They might even have failed at some time in the future. The pandemic may just have brought forward the inevitable. Certainly businesses have come and gone in our local shopping centre.

But nobody wants to think that way. And there is something we all tend to forget as we put our paws out for whatever becomes available and is touted as being "free". All this "free" help actually has to be paid for by someone  - and that someone is eventually us through the tax we pay and the higher prices we will endure.