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https://www.garynorth.com/public/20762.cfm

Gary North

“Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” (Matthew 6:34).

Are you worrying about what’s coming, might be coming, or has come?

Stop. Here’s how. Adopt psychological triage.

Triage [tree-awzh] was invented during the Napoleonic wars (1798–1815) by a physician. It was widely used by the French Army in World War I (1914–18).

Field hospitals were short of physicians. The physicians were short of time.

The teams learned to ration their time. They became death panels. They decided who got treated by means of this formula.

1. A wounded man would probably die, even with treatment. A nurse set him aside to die.2. He would probably live, even without treatment. A nurse set him aside to recover.

3. He would probably die without treatment, but he might live with treatment. They treated him.

This is a rational way to deal with a system that is overwhelmed, but it doesn’t use the market’s system of resource allocation: “High bid wins.”

Today, the economy is being overwhelmed by the lost productivity of the lockdowns. Governments have shut down the free market for labor.

Congress has allocated $2.3 trillion of counterfeit money to deal with this crisis. It will probably do it again later this month.

If the lockdowns have overwhelmed your finances, adopt psychological triage.

1. If a problem is beyond your ability to solve, pray hard, but at a specified time. At other times, ignore it.2. If a problem may take care of itself, pray at a specified time, but use a shorter prayer than with problem #1.

3. If a problem is big, but you may be able to solve it, pray: before you make a plan, while you are making the plan, and while you are implementing the plan (eyes open).

If you solve it, pray a prayer of thanks.

Then work on some other problem that you may be able to solve.

Worrying saps your emotional strength. Don’t worry. Pray instead. Prayer may restore your strength. Anyway, it can’t hurt. Worrying will hurt. It will not solve the problem.

Write down your triage plan. Follow it religiously.

Things are going to get a lot worse. Politicians will do even more stupid things to deal with the problems their plans have created.

Pray.