There are many reason’s why six weeks of lockdown in New Jersey did not control a virus with a 10 day incubation period. New Jersey was late with #masks4all, never required the most basic safety measures in nursing and veteran homes, and did nothing to deal with large numbers of homeless people spreading infection wherever they went. New Jersey never even tried to do the aggressive contact tracing and enforced quarantines that quickly controlled coronavirus in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and South Korea. Few, if any lives will be saved or infections avoided by doing another day, let alone month, of this half-baked, politically correct lockdown.
Today (April 30) , New Jersey’s eight million residents had 116,365 coronavirus cases and 6,771 deaths. Most of these cases developed AFTER the shutdowns and lockdowns which began in mid-March.
Meanwhile, Taiwan (non-Communist or “Free” China) with 24 million people was exposed sooner, never shut down or locked down, and had 429 cases and 6 deaths. Taiwan has had zero new cases during the past week.
The protection from New Jersey’s failed lockdown is as fake as the protection of New Jersey’s “Dollar A Day” auto insurance. New Jersey started mandatory “no fault” car insurance back in the 1970’s some 45 years ago. The idea was that if every driver were forced to buy car insurance, every driver and passenger in New Jersey would be protected with quick payment of medical bills and fair compensation for any auto accident. The program was a disaster.
Certain lawyers and doctors quickly gamed the system and increased the amounts of claims. Massive legal and illegal immigration and breakdowns in law enforcement increased the number of accidents as well as the damage and injuries. Auto insurance costs rapidly increased and auto insurance in New Jersey quickly became unaffordable and unsustainable.
In 2001, the high cost of auto insurance became New Jersey’s most important political issue. Democrat Jim McGreevy was elected Governor, and Democrats won majorities in both houses of the Legislature by promising to cut the cost of auto insurance.
By 2003, Democrats did work with Republicans to get some waste and fraud out of the system. They also brought some insurance companies back to New Jersey. However, they did virtually nothing to get bad drivers off the road. Instead, they created new fake auto insurance policies called “Basic Policies”. They were often called “Dollar a Day” policies because they originally sold for $365 per year. (Today they cost about $800 per year).
However, they are fake insurance because they insure almost nothing. If you are hurt by a careless or reckless driver with a “Basic Policy”, his or her insurance company will not pay you a nickel. The most you can get is up to $5,000 for damage to your car. In short, someone hurt by a careless or reckless driver with a “Basic” or “Dollar A Day” policy has even less protection than someone hurt by an uninsured driver 45 years ago!
What do we do when we can no longer rely on state laws, law enforcement, “mandatory insurance” to protect us from dangerous drivers? We need to think and act on our own to protect ourselves and our families!
We need to buy big cars with lots of safety features and use seatbelts and secure child seats. We need to drive defensively. We can no longer assume other drivers will signal when turning or stop at red lights or stop signs. Finally, we need to pay extra for “under-insured” insurance to get compensation if we do get hurt by a careless or reckless driver with a “Basic” or “Dollar a Day” policy.
Unfortunately, that is where New Jersey’ government has also put us with coronavirus. We cannot trust our government or assume it is protecting us. We must be extra careful to protect ourselves and our families.
We and everyone in our family must use our own judgments and act accordingly. We must decide for ourselves who to trust without masks or social distance. We must insist on social distance and masks when we have contact with anyone we believe has not taken precautions to avoid the virus. We need to be careful to wash our hands often, and avoid touching our faces.
At times, this will get ugly. Since our public health officials refuse to tell us who is infected, or where or how they got infected, we need to rely on friends, family, co-workers, social media, and our instincts as a substitute. These judgments will often be based on unreliable rumors. They may often be inaccurate, unfair, and hurtful. However, unlike in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and South Korea, we in Governor Murphy’s New Jersey have a dysfunctional government that gives us no other choice.
Seth Grossman, Executive Director
Libertyandprosperity.com
Personal email: sethgrossman49@gmail.com
