Blog Post 3

“What a crazy day,” Kim said yesterday after she got home from work.

“Coronavirus?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she said. “My schedule fell apart, which I figured it would. But I did see three patients in the morning. All three were doctors. Obviously, they thought it was safe to see the dentist. A lot of others stayed home though. Staff too. Meanwhile, people are pissed.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Well, it looks like our practice is going to have to shut down for a while. The Oregon Dental Association sent everyone a letter today that explained we’re in high-risk professions. They recommended shutting down except for emergency procedures, except for cases that involve pain. So, our office is probably going to close for a while, and that means nobody’s going to get paid.”

“That makes sense,” I said.

“It does,” Kim agreed, “but people aren’t happy about it. Some of the people in the office need each paycheck. They can’t pay their bills if they don’t get paid. They think the dentist should keep paying them — out of his own pocket, if necessary.”

“Whoa!” I said.

“I know,” Kim said. “They don’t understand that if we don’t see patients, the practice doesn’t make money. And if the practice doesn’t make money, it can’t pay employees. They just figure dentists are rich, so he should be able to pay us anyhow.”

Naturally, this will have a ripple effect.

• Fewer people are going to the dentist (and the O.D.A. has recommended closing anyhow), so the practice isn’t making money.
• The practice isn’t making money, so it can’t pay employees.
• Employees aren’t being paid, so they can’t buy things. Some can’t even pay their bills.
• And, of course, the businesses that rely on payment from the employees then lose revenue — and cannot pay their employees.

This morning in The New York Times, Neil Irwin calls this the one simple idea that explains why the economy is in great danger. “One person’s spending is another person’s income,” he writes. “That, in a single sentence, is what the $87 trillion global economy is.”

It’s as if the global economy is a perpetual motion machine. It’s a virtuous cycle. I buy from you. You buy from Jim. Jim buys from Jane. Jane buys from me. In a very real way, money makes the world go round.