Emmanuel Blézès is president of Club 2030, a forward-looking and think tank.
Yama Darriet is a consultant and author of
The Force of the Union: These Reasons to Love Europe
(2019).
Charles Mazé is also a consultant and author of
The Force of the Union: These Reasons to Love Europe
(2019).
Could the cure be worse than the disease?
The strictest health measures, if they save lives, generate other human tragedies.
The number of people having recourse to food aid is a good indicator to measure the progression of precariousness in France.
During the first confinement it had increased by 30%.
At this stage, we are still in turmoil but all the figures point in the same direction and confirm a rapid progression of poverty in our country.
One in three French people has suffered a loss of income with the health crisis, and there are already more than a million new poor.
Among them, more than 150,000 are forced to apply for RSA for food or shelter.
At the same time, unemployment is rising sharply: more than 300,000 people have already fallen into it since the start of the crisis and the Banque de France estimates that it should exceed 10% at the end of 2020 and then approach 12% in 2021, i.e. 3 , 9 additional points compared to the end of 2019, thus plunging new people into precariousness.
These estimates are dramatic.
They are unfortunately still too optimistic, because they were carried out before the announcement of the reconfinement.
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Behind these figures, behind the stroke of the pen that distinguishes the "
essential
" from the "
non-essential
", there are lives, also torn away, although they are not the subject of any daily count.
Students who lose the job that allowed them to finance their studies and feed themselves or who enter a job market without an offer, traders who, overnight, close their establishment and find themselves riddled with debt, being able to lead their families with them in precariousness, private cab or taxi drivers, without customers, without money.
The charges have not disappeared.
Overnight, sell your business, your house, your car, exhaust your accounts, leave your city, return to live with your parents when you have the possibility.
A whole shaken life.
Can we accept it?
Since we are talking about "
saving lives
", these lives are no less than the others.
Among those who declared having thought about suicide in 2020, business leaders, artisan traders and young people are over-represented
Since the start of the crisis, businesses have had very little say in the matter.
They accepted the toughest constraints, in the name of the general interest.
Yet there is no hierarchy in misfortune.
Among people who said they had thought about suicide in 2020, business leaders, artisans and young people are over-represented, according to a study carried out by the Jean Jaurès Foundation.
The link with the economic and social consequences of the crisis is direct.
Their situation is all the more desperate as some of the companies fall outside the cracks of the State's social net.
In fact, aid from the solidarity fund intended for SMEs is not activated when the loss of turnover is less than 50% and the State subsidy, when granted, is limited to 10,000 euros. per month, which is very low.
Not to mention State Guaranteed Loans which, unlike subsidies, will have to be repaid from 2022 by companies.
Will they even be able to?
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The state cannot provide for everything and this is quite normal.
Soon the fragile arms with which he tries to support somehow what can still be broken will break.
The only viable solution is to allow economic activity to resume.
Focus on life or the economy?
This debate does not need to be.
These are two sides of the same coin.
“
Economy
”, a rather abstract term, designates a lived reality: having a job, getting up in the morning, earning a living, gaining one's independence.
Live.
A poorer population is a population that forgoes certain care, cuts down on its diet and, ultimately, is in poorer health.
Opposing economy and life is therefore ineffective.
There would be on one side the humanists and on the other those who favor the economy.
However, it is the income that we get from our work that allows us to live, that is to say, not only to be able to meet our material needs, but to acquire dignity.
Also, a poorer population is a population that forgoes certain care, cuts down on its food and, in fine, is in poorer health.
By believing that we are prioritizing health, we are in fact creating the conditions for a new health disaster.
While waiting for a vaccine, the virus is not bound to disappear, it is therefore necessary to develop, as of today, a strategy whose objective must be to guarantee the continuation of the economic activity of the country.
What will we be if we have conquered the covid but find ourselves with new deaths on our hands?
Those who will have no more work, no resources.
Do we want to die healed?
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Preventing a country from working certainly saves lives but undoubtedly destroys more.
It has already started.
So you have to walk on two legs.
Fight the virus while allowing the economy to function as much as possible.
It is not just an economic requirement, it is a human imperative.