The ravages of the pandemic are catching up with us. The disruption caused to our society and economy is coming home to roost. In the beginning, when so much was unknown, we all accepted that drastic measures had to be taken. Some of us were concerned about the long-term costs. Others didn’t necessarily consider them. The crisis was too pressing.
But now we’re all feeling the impact of the policies we’ve been living with. Declining literacy rates and delayed social development in young children due to a combination of out-of-classroom learning and mask wearing. Delayed surgeries or treatments leading to more serious illness. Pantry staples missing from our grocery shelves. Service standards plummeting. Labor shortages affecting just about every industry.
For businesses, especially small businesses, the pandemic and government response has threatened their very sustainability. According to an end-of-year analysis from Leeds School of Business, over 40,000 businesses in Colorado closed their doors in 2021.
Sometimes I wonder whether lawmakers consider the impact of their decisions.
Take restaurants, for example. In the past two years, they’ve had to deal with rules about opening and closure; capacity; mask requirements; social distancing. This is an industry that already has small profit margins. Yet the government expected unending adaptability, as if restaurants could continue to operate when their ability to serve customers was constantly changing.
On top of all this are a host of new laws — non-pandemic related — introduced by government. One example: Last week, the city of Golden announced that restaurants can no longer offer sugary drinks with children’s meals. I, too, am very concerned about obesity; indeed it’s one of the most significant markers for COVID-related deaths. But this regulation, which to a lawmaker may sound oh, so simple, can wreak havoc on a proprietor.
Is the state going to pay for every restaurant to reprint its menus? Retrain its staff? Redo its website?
These may sound like little things to those not engaged in running a business, but they take time, they take resources, they divert one’s attention from other impossible-to-postpone and impossible-to-eliminate business necessities — all of which, amidst the pandemic fallout, are in extremely short supply.
The cost of doing business in Colorado is becoming too high for many businesses. Maybe an election in November will force lawmakers to pay attention to the enormous costs of their perhaps well-meaning policies.
Shana Goldberg may be reached at shana@ijn.com.
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