What is life-sustaining to you?

The obvious answers include air, water and food. After that it becomes much more individualized.

Some can’t do without vitamins and medicine. Others will quickly follow those things with their need for faith as well as love and companionship.

The coronavirus has robbed many of us from all but air, water and food. But even food now comes with a lot of strings attached to its availability.

As if that isn’t bad enough, now government — in particular Gov. Tom Wolf — elected to add more troubling restrictions than almost any other state in the country placed on its people. He seems to believe that he knows far more than the other governors, the Legislature and the president.

Most significantly, he has his own definition of life-sustaining.

We would argue that if you ask any parent to add to the list of what is life-sustaining they would add the ability to provide for their family. That includes employment of some sort.

Wolf determined Thursday that jobs are not that important. He stretched his attack on business and the labor force to include almost every Pennsylvanian, although we have had very few confirmed cases of the virus — particularly in Western Pennsylvania. But he doesn’t know we are even part of the commonwealth, and there have been no deaths around here yet.

We listened to his message Thursday and then checked to make sure we hadn’t moved to California.

Pennsylvania employers and laborers already have to deal with extremely high taxes, a very large and expensive Legislature, lousy roads and now a governor who places very little value on the economy of the state. He acts as if the jobs he did away with overnight will just pop back up and be there when this health scare passes.

And when it does, he will be the first one in front of a camera to claim he somehow is responsible, unless Pittsburgh Mayor and fellow publicity hound Bill Peduto gets there first.

The damage that is being done to the economy by this administration is not fixable. Businesses are going to close, and people will lose jobs and homes. These business people were smart enough and professional enough to start, build and maintain these businesses without Tom Wolf’s help.

They can surely make wise decisions on when and if to close their doors for the sake of their customers, their employees and the neighborhood.

We all trust each other far more than we will ever trust the government, because we never know what the real agenda is with government and when they are just making things look good for themselves.

Wolf seems to be trying to capitalize on getting some national press exposure at the cost of Pennsylvania’s economy. After all he won’t be around to be voted on after this concludes.

These certainly are very difficult times. No one should underestimate the worst case scenario. But either they aren’t telling the public everything, or each state is being left to guess how much they are at risk because of the disparity over how each is being governed is extreme.

We may kill this illness, but also kill our economy at the same time without reason. When our politicians line up side by side touching shoulders while they take their turn at the microphone to tell the rest of us the importance of social-distancing, then something is wrong.

Could it be someone is just crying Wolf?

— RV