We might get through coronavirus together, but we’re not going to be happy about it

In this time of national crisis, it’s important to remember: We’re all in this together! If we unite, look out for one another, put aside our differences and our own interests and work as one for the benefit of all, we’ll emerge even stronger. We’re all in this together!!

Well, umm, yes, right, about that togetherness bit …

That’s all well and good and lovely about the brotherhood (and sisterhood) of man(kind) … just so long as I‘m getting my share, and no one’s getting something I’m not.

And if this situation can be leveraged to one’s advantage, well, one wouldn’t want a crisis to go to waste, now would one?

Of course, one wouldn’t want to phrase it quite so crassly as that. So instead, we’ll frame it in terms of national interest, protecting working-class Americans and keeping the economy afloat.

Cynicism aside, Americans have been reasonably well behaved in reacting to and coping with coronavirus/COVID-19, and the measures designed to thwart its spread. There is no contesting that those measures have already taken a bite out of the economy, for individuals, for businesses of all sizes and entire industries. The longer and wider the shutdown, the bigger the chomp out of the economy. Families will suffer. Businesses will go under. The economy will slide into recession.

Thus it is natural for Americans to consider ways of cushioning the blows and mitigating the damage. But it is also natural for Americans to argue over anything and everything.

In the collision of those natural traits, then, we are already seeing signs of battle lines being drawn and fortifications being built over bailouts and assistance plans that haven’t even been drawn up yet, much less enacted and dispersing checks.

Consider the example of the cruise-ship industry, one of the hard-hit segments of the hard-hit travel and tourism sector. It’s an industry with significance for the Northwest, with Seattle being both the headquarters for several cruise operators and the jumping-off point for Inside Passage and Alaskan trips. Seattle-based Holland America announced a 30-day suspension of operations for all 14 of its boats. So did Seattle-based Seabourn for its five vessels. (Both companies are part of Carnival Corp.)

So people would understand if the cruise-ship industry was included in some sort of rescue plan, right?

No, they would not, at least not if they’re the International Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots (representing U.S. sea captains, deck officers and other mariners).

“We should not give one dime in stimulus money to ‘flag-of-convenience’ party boats; they should be the last on the list for a federal bailout,” says a letter issued by the organization. “The major cruise lines have owners who live in the United States, but they register their vessels in foreign countries and sail under foreign flags. They utilize flags-of-convenience laws to avoid hiring American crews and adhering to American labor laws and standards, as well as environmental codes. These ‘operators’ depend on the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard for protection while avoiding paying taxes to the U.S. Treasury.”

If any maritime entities ought to be getting help, the organization adds, it should be ferry systems like Washington’s or Alaska’s.

Or how about the airline industry? Airlines are cutting capacity to match the drop in passenger counts. It’ll be a long time before people venture back out into the world for air travel. Won’t they need something to tide them over and keep them in business?

“You should have thought of that before blowing all your cash on stock buybacks and not spending any on pandemic insurance,” is the retort from the Business Travel Coalition in a letter to leaders of the U.S. Senate. That first quote was a paraphrase. This is directly from that letter: “The U.S. has a bankruptcy process that reorganizes physical, labor and other assets and combines them with new capital investors, if a situation so requires. Why then, should U.S. taxpayers and airline consumers, as potentially new investors via a bailout, simply write a check to airlines without investor-appropriate conditions and requirements?”

Aerospace companies like Boeing don’t just manufacture planes for those airlines to fly, they also manufacture a lot of jobs, and if airlines don’t need as many planes as they’ve ordered because not as many people are flying, those jobs are imperiled.

Boeing this past week announced it backs “a minimum of $60 billion in access to public and private liquidity, including loan guarantees, for the aerospace manufacturing industry. This will be one of the most important ways for airlines, airports, suppliers and manufacturers to bridge to recovery. Funds would support the health of the broader aviation industry, because much of any liquidity support to Boeing will be used for payments to suppliers to maintain the health of the supply chain.”

That idea is already getting pushback because people are already mad at Boeing over the 737 debacle, the company’s management record in recent years and the results of previous incentive and subsidy deals. There’s a lot of angry talk about extracting concessions from Boeing in exchange for emergency financing; we’ll see how long or well that holds up.

For that matter, some Americans are still fuming over the last major round of bailouts, for investment banks and the automakers, at the onset of the Great Recession. And a few lonely souls are also grumbling about how we’re proposing to spend billions of dollars the federal government doesn’t have, but since deficits and debt seem to be absent as issues in this election cycle that’s probably the objection least likely to influence the debate.

The fight over relief spending will, for a time, prove as fractious as the threat of COVID-19 has, supposedly, united us. Neither will last. Eventually, we’ll get back to grousing and griping. But we’ll also work out our differences (most of them, anyway) over rescue and bailout programs. Amazing the power of widespread illness – or widespread cash – as a uniting force.

This story was originally published March 21, 2020 at 11:00 AM.