After an economic recession in the United States, New Mexico is inevitable the last state out of the muddy economic ditch. This knowledge should have flagged for even the most inattentive New Mexico political leader the fact that New Mexico’s economy is fragile. Thus, great care should have been taken with our economy — our business and our jobs — even in the face of a problem like the Covid 19 pandemic.
Of course the expected magnitude of the danger to life caused by a virus is a critical issue for political leaders. Were ten percent of the residents of the state expected to lose their lives if great state restrictions were not applied, leaders would be presented with quite a different problem than with one where,say, .001% of the population were expected to be highly vulnerable to the virus and die. We thought it appropriate to begin our discussions on this NMJOBKILLER website with an examination of the danger of the Covid 19 virus, thereby giving the reader a gauge with which to judge the actions of our political leaders — actions which have killed so many New Mexico jobs. Below we present the work of Devin Kennemore. His graphic analysis and conclusions tell a different story than the one being presented by some of our political leaders. Kennemore’s conclusions are drawn directly from the data which you can see, accept or dispute. He overlays testing and compares it to actual hospitalizations and deaths in New Mexico. We understand that one is judged to be insensitive if one appears to discount the value of human life. We don’t. Every life is valuable. But, the psychological and economic damage to New Mexico residents arising from the shuttering of businesses and closing schools also must be considered. The suicide rate is up. Individuals are loosing businesses which they have developed over a lifetime. Employees are wondering whether they will have a job. Many students are adrift. Our governor’s use of authority has prompted numerous lawsuits and a movement among legislators to call an extraordinary session of the legislature to limit her executive orders to 30 days. (Too many legislators are aligned with her for this effort to succeed.) Yet, we fear that her extreme restrictions on travel, business, schools and the faith communities have markedly set us back economically, educationally and socially. We wonder whether the governor has taken us from being an economically and educationally poor state to one which is virtually a failed state — one from which residents will flee for educational, business and job opportunities elsewhere. Have the governor’s actions been justified? Look at the Kennemore data and you decide.