To a Democrat, there's no difference between a paycheck and an unemployment check.  They both deliver money into someone's pocket.  As long as they're getting a check, the unemployed should be grateful to stay home.  Jobs are inconvenient and demeaning.  You must get to work on time, boring repetition is the order of the day, and most jobs come with a boss who enjoys belittling people.  And hey, demand remains robust anyway because everyone's pockets jingle.  No harm, no foul.

Democrats who have never held a private-sector job can't fathom the implications of their policies.  They mingle with the private sector daily, but it remains as foreign to them as public schools.  They fail to understand that the public sector can't create wealth.  Wealth is created in the private sector.  All of it.  The private sector is the golden goose that provides the fuel for government, but clueless Democrats want to assassinate the goose anyway.

Government people forget that private-sector jobs produce something society wants.  It's a law of economics.  Otherwise, there's no income to pay workers.  When people no longer go to their jobs, stuff doesn't get made, stuff doesn't get done, and stuff spoils.  Supply chains break, so crops and livestock get discarded; crucial supplies run short; entertainment dries up; dining out becomes a wistful memory; and we all look scruffy without haircuts, manicures, and dry cleaning.  Society doesn't get the stuff its members need or want.  The longer the lockdown endures, the more public demand goes unfulfilled.

Our current dilemma is not just lost production and a national debt blowing through the ceiling.  Staying holed up in your home extinguishes hope and makes the future look bleak.  The best preparation for a better job is working any job today.  If we stay in lockdown, our future dims.  How can it be otherwise when your life consists of bouncing against the walls of your home?  Beyond boredom, you're dependent on an allowance you have no control over.  You're at the mercy of others, and once they've crushed your spirit, they're merciless.

It would come as news to Democrats that money doesn't grow on printing presses.  If bitcoins can be created out of whole cloth, why not dollars?  Inflation?  Not a problem.  To Democrats, "too many dollars chasing too few goods" is capitalist propaganda.  But to keep inflation at bay requires not only a steady money supply, but also nonstop production of goods and services.  Democrats are paying productive members of society to stay away from their jobs.  Disequilibrium between supply and demand will soon cause havoc.

In the back of their minds, Democrats have an inkling that government revenue is in some manner dependent on the private sector.  They don't really understand the relationship because government employees pay taxes as well, and heaven knows, there are plenty of them about.  But it's starting to sink into bureaucrats' heads that tax revenues are spinning down the toilet.  The first reaction is to demand thatthe federal government make them whole.  After all, Nancy controls the purse strings.  When that fails, and it will, they'll raise taxes.  Democrats are in for a big disappointment when they discover you can't get blood out of a turnip.  They impoverished the plebeian class, and a ratchet up in rates won't matter.  A greater percentage of nothing is still nothing.  But to a Democrat, that's higher math.

At some point, states and locales controlled by Democrats will become desperate, and they'll finally loosen the reins on the lockdown — except, surprise, the jobs won't come bouncing back.  Jobs are not happenstance.  People create jobs — real people willing to take a risk for a chance to live their dream and rake in the rewards of success.  Most of these dreamers run small businesses, and most Americans work at a small business.  By the time Democrats lighten up, small entrepreneurs will be penniless and disillusioned.  Why the hell should they re-experience this level of heartbreak?  Why work your butt off if the government can suddenly rip it all away?  Our governments turned the American Dream into a cruel nightmare.  Instead of rehiring workers, many will sit out the next cycle.

Democrats say we're nonessential, but how can every single government worker be essential?  How does that make sense?  And when is a paycheck ever non-essential?  When you're rich or have government-guaranteed pay.  All of those in the cradle of comfort tell us that our sacrifice is for the public good.  They're wrong.  The public good has been irrevocably harmed.  Jobs are important for the provision of goods and services, feeding families, societal mobility, mental health, tax revenues, national security, and the preservation of life for the needy and unhealthy.

If the big box retailers can protect their workers, then so can the rest of us.  We need to reopen our economy.  Business is the lifeblood of our American economy.  Treat every job, every worker, every business as essential...because they are.

James D. Best is the author of Tempest at Dawn, a novel about the 1787 Constitutional Convention, and the Steve Dancy Tales.