With all the patronizing piety they can muster, newscasters and commercials on television keep telling viewers, "We're all in this together," as if this will provide consolation and build national unity. It might if it were true.

A better service would show how, because of government policy, some people are surviving the COVID-19 epidemic comfortably while others, even though not infected, are being ruined.

Many government employees in Connecticut -- police and correctional officers, firefighters, child-protection social workers, and doctors and nurses -- are not just still working but risking their lives. Other government employees are not working as much as usual if at all but still being paid and insured though they are no more essential than many of the private-sector workers who have been furloughed or laid off because their employers have had to reduce or suspend operations.

Those private-sector workers who have lost their jobs and now face losing their housing and insurance still incur their usual tax obligations. While they will have less state income tax to pay, nobody is waiving property, sales, and gas taxes for them, and even renters pay property taxes indirectly, through their rent.

Of course, government's response to the epidemic was not calculated to penalize the private sector. But the consequences of its response are a reminder that most of the time government takes far better care of itself than it takes care of the public.

The huge if yet-uncounted cost of the epidemic requires confronting this unfairness.

While it may be hoped that the federal government will reimburse state government for most of its extraordinary expenses in the epidemic, by one estimate the epidemic still may cost state government $1.5 billion in tax revenue. That's almost 15 percent of the state budget, about half of which is spent on state and municipal government employees. How can such a deficit be closed without economizing with government employee compensation? Maintaining government employee compensation at current levels will be achieved only by reducing public services or raising taxes again, though Connecticut's high taxation already has cost it much population and business.

Since the General Assembly has been unable to convene and conduct normal business amid the epidemic, legislators should start contemplating this challenge on their own. The emergency powers claimed by Gov. Ned Lamont under Section 28-9 of the Connecticut General Statutes would enable him to suspend collective bargaining and binding arbitration for government employees, and thereby enable state and municipal government to begin to regain control of personnel expenses. But any such suspension could last for no more than six months at a time. Only regular legislation can regain that control for the long term.

Connecticut and the country won't be getting back to normal for many months. The epidemic soon may be slowed but the virus will linger into the summer and threaten to flare again when cold weather drives people back indoors.

Many smaller businesses are not likely to survive this -- not just restaurants and entertainment-oriented businesses but retailers and professional offices as well. The capital of those businesses will have been wiped out, along with the jobs they provided, and society may need years to regain income before it can support them again.

Temporarily bigger government likely will save Connecticut from the worst of the epidemic. But what remains of the state won't be able to afford as much of the government it had.

Chris Powell is a columnist for the Journal Inquirer, in Manchester, Conn.

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