Georgia restaurateur nails premature reopening: "This is about screwing the working class and small business, not about helping us."

Who is John Gianoulidis? At Mother Jones, Maddie Oatman tells us: Reopening a Restaurant Will Take a Lot More Than a Governor’s Order.

For the last five years, John Gianoulidis satisfied Atlanta-area residents’ craving for Greek food with gyros and baklava from his two diners, both called Kafenio, and a coffee shop. As paralysis from the coronavirus took hold last month, he made the tough decision to shut down one of the diners, which catered heavily to now-furloughed Delta Airlines employees, and laid off 14 employees from all the locations. He turned another location into a counter-service-only affair, and is now working seven days a week at both the diner and the coffee shop. Though he’s seen some demand for takeout meals, business has dropped off dramatically. “I’m just keeping my head above water,” he says.

But Georgia Governor Brian Kemp’s announcement on April 20 that certain businesses in the state, including restaurants with dine-in service, would be allowed to reopen at the end of the month—and that no local ordinances can prevent them from doing so—did nothing to assuage Gianoulidis’ angst.

Kemp, backed by new guidelines released by President Donald Trump for reopening the economy, framed his decision as an effort to “get Americans back to work.” But as far as Gianoulidis was concerned, Kemp’s policy was just a way to shift the burden of the virus from the state back onto people like him. “Guys, this is about screwing the working class and small business,” he posted on Facebook that night, “not about helping us.”

Following is the referenced Facebook post by Gianoulidis.

April 20 at 10:18 PM

Here’s the deal.

Kemp mandates restaurants reopen, whether I reopen dining rooms or not.

I file for business interruption insurance, it does not go through since I am “allowed” to operate full capacity.

My landlord can demand all their money, since I am allowed to fully operate.

Furloughed staff that is collecting unemployment insurance have to come back to work or I have to let them go. Their unemployment insurance then goes on my tab.

If things blow up again, they are still on my tab not on the states, since they are no longer employed.

Guys, this is about screwing the working class and small business, not about helping us.

Thank you so much to everyone that voted this malignant tumor into office.

Before you don your camo and march off to protest scientific reality, take a moment and read the piece at Mother Jones. There remains a distant possibility you might learn something. The closing paragraph is striking.

Gianoulidis doesn’t feel ready to follow suit. When he does, he imagines he’ll pull half of his tables and make sure to continue asking himself: “Have I served the public in good conscience?” He thinks often of his parents, Greek immigrants who emigrated to New England in 1963. They “worked their tails off” in factories to save up enough to open a little pizza joint in Connecticut. Their story reminds him to keep moving forward right now. And if things in Georgia continue to unravel, he says, “Thankfully, I also have Greek citizenship.”

It's time for a transformation: "Giving workers a social safety net benefits us all."

There's no substitute for experience.

These measures have been passed to respond to the unprecedented nature of Covid-19. But they also show that what sometimes seems improbable can suddenly become quite mainstream. As many city leaders who have been championing policies like paid sick leave and expanded worker protections will attest, not only are these programs incredibly popular with constituents, but they can and do transform lives.

Nope. Not giving back what has been gained.

How We Stopped Villainizing the Social Safety Net, by Brooks Rainwater (CityLab)

The coronavirus crisis has made clear to more American people and politicians what was true all along: Giving workers a social safety net benefits us all.

In these topsy-turvy times of rapid transformation in response to Covid-19, it has become apparent that a number of once-unimaginable policy solutions are no longer crazy ideas. In a newfound empathy and solidarity for front-line workers like grocery store clerks, drivers delivering packages, and sanitation workers still picking up the trash, you can see a potentially re-shaped America on the horizon.

It turns out that we can strengthen the social safety net — though it unfortunately took a pandemic to create the widespread support to do so. Political leaders — starting local and rapidly scaling up to their state and federal counterparts — have been quick to support and institute a wide range of emergency support measures to help people right now.

Many ideas once anathema to national political leaders are now viable. Suddenly even federal lawmakers who have long resisted these policy ideas are embracing paid sick leave, employment protections for contract workers, and even direct cash payments to people as solutions ...