In this edition I share Veronique’s Reason.com article on titled, Coronavirus Pandemic Inspires Private Generosity. It’s great that other people are seeing the good in the world.
While many of us turn to the government for answers to the COVID-19 pandemic, others rightfully seek solutions from the private sector. Last week, the Hoover Institution’s Russ Roberts asked his many twitter followers to help “create a list of voluntary (non-coercive) actions taking place right now to reduce COVID-19 spread or impact.” The answers are too inspiring not to share.
First, many of Roberts’ followers shared a list the benefits offered by their employers that help to alleviate workers’ financial hardships or ensure their health is protected. For instance, Walmart, Target, Gap, and many other firms announced that they will provide up to two weeks of paid leave to every worker who is sick or taking care of sick family members.
Original Article: https://reason.com/2020/03/19/coronavirus-pandemic-inspires-private-generosity/
Follow Veronique: https://twitter.com/veroderugy
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AUTOMATED TRANSCRIPT
hello and welcome to parking thought the
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gratitude Lane around here we start our
episode titles with and just because we
can the windows here in the studio face
the rolling hills of gratitude and just
beyond the hills lie all the good in the
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everyday
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to find us in this edition we’re
actually going to be reading an episode
or reading excuse me reading an article
from reason.com right raising calm is a
libertarian news outlet right so they’re
not shy about saying that their news
comes with the slant and I’m not shy
about saying I really appreciate it you
know how they think of things it’s free
minds and free markets and they recently
published an article on March th
that they’ve given me permission to be
able to read to you on the air I’m
grateful that they’ve done this now once
again I’m gonna butcher the name of the
author
it’s Veronique Veronique de Rugy I think
it’s how you would pronounce it if it
were French but in the English version
of that it would be also called
Veronique and the title of this article
is corona virus pandemic inspires
private generosity and while we get
caught up in a lot of the negative
things that we might see on the news
because remember when those negative
things hit the news they become easy
narratives for the news to reiterate and
reinforce at least a lot of our
traditional news and so we need to take
the time to look back and the last
episode I talked about how I’m seeing
families in our neighborhood take their
dogs for walks and spend time with their
children and being able to get in the
outdoors especially as the weather is
getting better and how cool that is
right there’s a lot of good happening in
the world this article talks about some
of it and I’m so grateful to be able to
read it to you guys today and it’s just
remember these are not my words I am NOT
that
and I will do my best to capture in my
reading both the spirit and the letters
that the author has put together corona
virus pandemic inspires private
generosity examples abound of the
generosity and sense of community of the
American people while many of us turned
to the government for answers to the
Cova pandemic others rightfully seek
solutions from problem from the private
sector
last week the Hoover institutions Russ
Roberts asked his many Twitter followers
to help create a list of voluntary
non-coercive
actions taking place right now to reduce
kovat spread or impact the answers
are too inspiring not to share first
many of Roberts followers shared a list
of the benefits offered by their
employers that help to alleviate workers
financial hardships or ensure that their
health is protected for instance Walmart
Target Gap and many other firms
announced that they will provide up to
two weeks of paid leave to every worker
who is sick or taking care of sick
family members even companies that rely
on self-employed contractors are
stepping up during the crisis
uber for example emailed its customers
to inform them that any driver or
delivery person who is diagnosed with
code or is individually asked to self
isolate by a Public Health Authority
will receive financial assistance for up
to days whether their account is on
hold
adding we’ve already helped drivers in
some effected areas and we’re working to
quickly implement this worldwide
second the fast rising prices of some
items like hand sanitizers frustrate
many but these price hikes are also a
vital signal to manufacturers that these
products are an especially high demand
high enough that it’s worth it for those
companies are worth it for companies
that usually don’t make these goods to
shift their resources towards producing
them in China face masks are now
produced by auto electronic and energy
companies a group of citizens in Hong
Kong set up a surgical mask factory to
increase supplies which tempers price
hikes but Roberts followers also
highlight examples of companies
innovating to fill other shortage gaps
for example shine distillery and grill
in Portland Oregon is now turning its
alcohol waste into hand sanitizer which
the owner then gives away durham
distillery in North Carolina is also
donating its homemade hand it’s homemade
hand sanitizer to local hospitality
businesses big guys like LVMH are
helping to the world’s biggest luxury
company announced that it would
temporarily make hand sanitizer instead
of perfumes and then freely delivered
the gel across France to address
critical shortages companies are going
out of their way to make it tolerable
for people to be stuck at home the
Metropolitan Opera is now streaming
nightly performances for free – fans
quarantine to their homes the streaming
company Xoom a leader in modern
enterprise video communications will
start streaming religious services for
free – where I live in Arlington
Virginia comcast is providing free Wi-Fi
for children who don’t have it this
generosity helps students learn while
their schools are closed Charter
Communications also announced that it
would offer free broadband for two
months to households with students
around the country former Duke
basketball star and current New Orleans
pelicans ioan will New Orleans Pelican
Zion Williamson announced that he will
cover the salaries of workers at the
Smoothie King Center who will be hurt by
the NBA suspension of its season in the
same spirit Charlotte’s the Charlotte
Hornets Sports & Entertainment and
Charlotte Hornets players announced the
creation of a fund to provide financial
assistance to their part-time
workers affected by the lack of games
and Guinness brewery announced that it
would give $, through its Guinness
give back fund to help communities where
we live work and celebrate restaurants
are also restructuring their operations
in order to protect workers and
customers in Seattle high-end restaurant
Canlis went from offering a $
four-course tasting menu to selling
bagel sandwiches in the morning running
a drive-thru serving burgers and veggie
melts for lunch and delivering dinner to
the doorsteps of seattle residents
according to the New York Times Roberts
feed is
full of examples of local restaurants
offering free lunches to children in
need whose schools have closed this
column is too short to list everything
that companies and citizens are now
doing to help during the crisis from
private companies searching for cures
and developing a vaccine to private
citizens tutoring kids for free online
to neighbors using the next door app to
set up mutual aid or resources for
vulnerable community members needing
food medicines and services examples
abound of the generosity and sense of
community of the American people if you
need inspiration during the long
upcoming social distancing stretch
before us
just scroll down your Facebook feed
America you’ve got this and Veronique
who posted this thank you thank you very
much for writing this this is a perfect
addition and I’m so grateful to share it
with this audience here today well let’s
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world let’s remember in a world where we
can choose to be anything why not choose
to be grateful
[Music]
Parking Thought 