We need to find a balance in how we handle Covid Lockdown. But it's not the "lives vs livelihood" balance I am worried about. That's a false debate: everyone wants to save lives and save the economy. Let's stop having a fight that we all agree on anyway.
The real issue is the balance between recklessness and confidence. If the President opened the economy tomorrow, would people actually spend their money? If restaurants opened, would people go? If airlines started flying, would people fill the planes?
Of course, some people would. And maybe there would be an early rush for a few days as desperate people need to let off lockdown steam.
But from a GDP level, opening the economy depends less on government regulation and more on consumer confidence. And people are not confident, and they won't be for a while. There's a global pandemic around - you might have noticed. We are all consumers, and we know we don't have money to spend, we need to save, and have an uncertain future for a few years. We are nervous of our safety when out in public, and concerned for vulnerable people in our communities.
Let's stop wasting our energy moaning about government regulations and blaming the government for the tough times in our industries; and start planning - if we can - for what we and our teams will do to ensure that our workplaces are safe to go back to work as soon as we are allowed to. If you really get proactive, you might even help the government to fast track your industry opening up.
And most importantly, you will need to work hard now to get your customers to have confidence to make use of your facilities and services. This relates to safety, it relates to access and it relates to pricing. Get working now on building that confidence.