Las Vegas Coronavirus Shutdown

Excerpt:

"The virus has shaken Las Vegas’ economy in an unprecedented way, ushering in a new reality for thousands of locals who only recently emerged — some still battered — from the last recession. Those who lost jobs and houses during the early 2010s carry those memories onto a precarious landscape of new economic challenges.

Asked to compare this to the 2008 financial crisis, which racked Las Vegas, Julie Langille, 45, a showgirl and entertainer for much of her adult life, said this is worse.  'This is a little scarier. Before, yes, it impacted our industry, but it didn’t shut our city down,' she said.  'It’s never been that everything has to stop for a period of time.'  ”

Ref: LA Times

I wish I could be more sympathetic, but I'm not. For decades, casinos have been giant bloodsucking cash cows that preyed upon the stupid and the weak. The people who work there receive very nice paychecks for essentially unskilled labor.

But the casinos took that money and bought up every property on the planet, while their employees ran out and bought shiny new pickup trucks and acquired desert McMansions.

Now, the consequences of lack of foresight will hit Vegas hard. The basic trouble with Vegas's economy is that it produces nothing tangible or intrinsically useful. An entire local economy based on nothing other than taking money out of people's pockets will be in big trouble when those people stop showing up.

Caesars lost $1.2 billion last year, while MGM earned $2.2 billion.............on $32 billion in assets.  They're not getting rich.  Their problem is a shit load of debt.  I don't feel sorry for them, nor to a hold animosity towards them.  I'm not sure why Kevin does.

No sympathy for a barber shop owner whose business is suddenly shut down? 

Candy, if your comment is directed towards me, we were talking mega casinos.  I vote for EVERY business to start up, and for quick burn through our population on this virus.  Fare more people are going to die due to the economic ramifications in comparison to the virus.

Of course I feel sympathy for small business owners. But Vegas has been a boomtown for a decade or so, and pretty much EVERYONE got nice and fat from the money subtracted from tourists' pockets. And the politicians and casino moguls made sure that that would continue indefinitely. Until it didn't.

So if Bob Barber's feeling the pinch, I'd say to him, you rode the boom, now tough out the bust. The rest of the country fed Vegas money for years, like it was a giant tumor. It should be uniquely positioned to ride things out.

You don't know that. We DO know that overwhelmed medical facilities are unable to treat people who would normally have survived.

Fortunately, it's not an either-or choice. We can incentivize socially responsible behavior by assuring people that they'll receive financial assistance.

By the way, the coronavirus relief package's cost is very close to the amount of the Trump deficit that was caused by his corporate tax breaks. In a very real sense, we've already given them a handout. I'm not impressed if they somehow need another one to survive one quarter. Maybe our bigly wonderful economy was never all that great.

Kevin is right. This won't work. Our hospitals in areas with widespread infection are already being overwhelmed. Soon most of the hospitals in the country will be. Italy's fatality rate has shot up past 10% since their hospitals became overwhelmed.  If we did a burn through, our fatality rate might end up being 20% or more. We would also have quite a few deaths because people with non-COVID-19 medical emergencies wouldn't be able to get emergency treatment. 

Then you have to consider the experts are saying the virus will likely come back in cycles until we have a working vaccine. 

No, Boilerman, not directed at you.   It was in response to Kevin's post.  It sounded to me like he was saying he had no sympathy for any Las Vegan affected financially by the virus, even the little guy.  That's all.

They are getting $600 a week, whatever state unemployment benefits they get and $1200 in Donny Dollars. I think most of them will be ok for the next 4 months.