OPINION: John Miltimore - Waffle House’s Stand Against Lockdowns Is Exactly What America Needs—Almost

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 Sunday, November 22, 2020 - 08:10

Walt Ehmer, the CEO of Waffle House, didn’t mince words when he explained his biggest problem with economic lockdowns stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.

"None of the people who make the decisions to shut down businesses and impact people's livelihoods ever have their own livelihood impacted," Ehmer recently told Business Insider.

There’s clearly some hyperbole in the statement. After all, everyone is impacted to some degree by the lockdowns. But Ehmer’s larger point is correct: the people shutting down the economy are not being affected by lockdowns to the same extent others are.

When the coronavirus swept across America earlier this spring, Waffle House, which has locations in 25 states, was forced to shut down some 700 restaurants across the country. This put roughly 28,000 hourly Waffle House employees out of work, who became part of the 26.5 million Americans who filed for unemployment that month.

The story of these workers underscores an overlooked reality of the pandemic: lower-income Americans are being harmed the most by lockdowns.

Read more at FEE.  


John Miltimore is managing editor of FEE.org, the Website of The Foundation for Economic Education