When is a loss not a loss

Subject: When is a loss not a loss.

"We are loosing two and a half billion pounds a day" says the news jock on the radio.
These headlines are meant to bring to our attention the seriousness of our economic position  whilst we battle with the medical issue of the pandemic.
But wait a minute is this an actual loss of earnings or is this loss calculated by estimating how much we 'would have spent if we had been able to go out shopping, buying that latte in the coffee shop or yet another food blender. If we are adding up what we might have spent as a loss perhaps we have to adjust our thinking and say 'their loss' is 'my gain' since I still have my money in my pocket. If our manufactures can't sell their wares because their outlets are closed  but still have to continue to pay basic overheads, such as rent and fundamental maintenance costs we mustn't inflate this lass with a loss of earnings since that is an opportunity cost and until realised it is nebulous.
From the moment the pandemic closed much of the worlds economic business cycle the situation has become a zero sum game. The clock stopped at midnight and the accountants should have stopped their clock too and not extrapolated the loss to cover prospective earnings. Much of the fundamental costs, such as rates and rents have been frozen. The money borrowed by the property firm to lease or rent out, is a genuine loss of income only if the lender is asking for his loan repayment but if these loans are also on ice then the loss becomes static and in fact, like everything else ceases to be a loss other than as in a potential to earn.

There are sectors of the market place which has been kept open, notably the grocers to keep us fed. The money required to keep food in our mouths comes in the form of furloughed money from the government, a loan which is a debt and will have to be replayed through taxes when people can go back to work but the concept of loss is then transformed into one of money management through the taxation process which in itself is a form of transferring money out of our pockets as consumers and limiting our ability to consume, which to some is considered a loss.
Serious as this pandemic is for industry and commerce the clock has stopped for everyone across the world and the winners will be the ones to get their industries up and running first so they gain a competitive advantage.
The money go round has stopped. Stopping the clock should be a lesson to all of us. It's a moment to reexamine our compulsion to consume. To often live beyond our means splurging on credit, always on the assumption that we will, in the future have the money to pay for our extravagance today.
Perhaps a realignment of our thinking and our actual needs may produce a more balanced, less market driven consumptive circle, a necessary brake on our runaway spend, spend, spend.