There’s a very complicated question many Americans need to ponder as we look to re-open portions of the US economy less effected by the Covid-19 virus.

How many lives should it cost? I believe before we turn one manufacturing factory’s light switch on the White House should have a number in mind to access success or failure.

As of Wednesday morning at 6AM there were 26,047 US souls who lost their lives to the pandemic. That marks a US death rate against population of 0.00008. Globally the death rate against population is 0.00002, as calculated using the latest data.

I’m not minimizing anyone’s loss of life, but as a pandemic goes these numbers: 8 out of 100,000 for the US, just doesn’t justify the economic pain on tens of millions of fellow citizens.

How should it open? I have no answer, but I did have suggestions including forming a business task force to facilitate a smoother opening.

Well President Trump said he would be spending the rest of the week talking to Fortune 500 company CEOs and union leaders in many sectors of the economy to get their feedback.

Not sure all the complexities of the economy can be worked out in this manner, but it begins a dialog to quickly take care of any snags encountered over the next few months.

While the president did not mention which states are chomping at the bit to open prior to May 1, it would be my educated guess that a majority of those states have Republican governors.

Now why do I say Republican leaders? Well for a majority of reasons from being better prepared to leading states with less dense city environments. I’m not quite sure if its ironic that a majority of the hot spot zones in the US are long-time Democratic controlled states and metro areas.

Surely, the US economy needs to begin the process of re-opening up and the more cautious and ably we can do this — so as to not retreat to another lock down — the better.

There will be fits and starts, but through it all most Americans showed they were up for the fight, but the next two months could be the toughest part of the battle.