Having a bunch of people die would also **** the economy. And sacrificing a bunch of people for the profits of a few billionaires is disgusting. And as to the effects on the rest of us, the only reason it's a problem is that we insist on having a rube Goldberg machine for an economy.
Pausing the machine shouldn't break it. In practical terms, the physical and human capital underlying the economy* wouldn't go anywhere just because the non-essential people stay home for a few months or a year. And we can afford to feed people during that time.
It's a problem because we're idiots and built everything around people and businesses being up to their eyeballs in debt and used all the (imaginary) value of all the interest on all that debt to inflate the economy, so that pausing means a bunch of physical and human capital should change ownership and a bunch of debt is devalued, causing an imaginary deflation. Well, all of that and our culture has nasty attitudes toward poor people, so that we are unwilling to support people through a pandemic.
The REAL, INTRINSIC value of our economy would not be damaged at all with sane policies. But the bullshit of our economy will be in chaos and people will be ****ed because our government insists on letting us suffer if our billionaires can't exploit us for a few months.
*Meaning, the buildings and machines would be fine, the people would be fine and wouldn't suddenly forget all their knowledge and skill. There's no inherent reason we couldn't just restart and pick up where we left off when it is safe. There are policy reasons why we can't.
