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Most people here were already stretching for a simple survival long before the c-19. Loans on the loans on the loans on top of the baseless hope for the light in the end of the tunnel. The bubble was growing in each and every sector of the economy - thanks to the never fixed issue of 2008. The last straw could have come at any moment. C-19 was just a trigger for the acute phase of the crisis. Even 2 unpaid weeks finally broke those backs. Just a reminder here: 44% of US population didn't have $400 for unexpected expenses while living paycheck to paycheck. Well, here they come. "No paycheck" is the unexpected "expense". And they can't find another dead-end job since all of them suddenly disappeared due to the quarantine. I would say the unemployment rate would exceed 50% due to the domino effect, since domestic economy is mostly virtual and of the "service" type and there is simply no more foreign "clients" to offload US debt to them. We will see drastic drop in SOL, at best equal to current European level (where $1500/mo is considered "upper middle class"), but most likely even lower. We probably will see lots of riots/looting, since most people will be desperate, but I don't think we will see any revolution.
The experts say we will hit 30% and we are definitely on track.
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The number of Americans filing for unemployment is expected to have skyrocketed to a record-breaking 1.64 million for the week ended March 21, according to economists polled by Bloomberg.
My aunts, uncles and brother own 3 restaurants and 3 nail salons. 14 people in my family who own or work in these businesses and 40 other workers are all unemployed. They are terrified because they have no idea how long this will last.
According to the Brookings Institute, this Chinese virus will accelerate the use of automation to replace low-wage workers. This is actually good for the stock market because less human labor means more profits for companies.
It depends. Americans have a very short attention span. Once they realize this is simple fear mongering it could be dismissed quickly. we are talking about grand scale fear mongering though world wide in a level never seen before. The corona virus itself is a joke. The death rate looked at statistically for the older age groups is the same as any influenza flu strain.
The media controls information flow and creates perception which leads to a created false reality. Now lay offs are certain and the trickle effect will occur. everyone watches the garbage news and it just reverberates through there mind. Some virus expert states lies and folks run for toilet paper.
A good read is, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.
everything is shut down now government wise. The pied piper plays the pipe and folks just dance. It's really sad.
Folks have been dumbed down so much though and are so mentally lazy that I can't see a quick rebound at all. I hope not for the hard working folks that need to support families. So I hope I am wrong. Quite often I am.
I'd be right along side you (and I agree that our sole concern should be working class families), but your statistics are way off base. Scientifically speaking, the flu has nothing on this virus. We're talking 0.1% versus somewhere between 3 and 4% on average, but keep in mind that in some places in Italy, the death rate is much higher because a) they ran out of air respirators (which will also happen in the U.S.), and b) their smoking rates and elderly patients, i.e. comorbidities is also higher. Additionally, Italian government officials did not initially take it seriously and were not prepared.
If you're really in it for the betterment of the working classes, please be careful about how quickly you are to dismiss how truly deadly this is going to be for them because if we play that game, we're going to be forced to ship everyone right back into the economy in what will end up being known as Trump's industrialization effort a la Stalin and Mao. Millions will die needlessly simply in the name of economic revitalization.
I think your head is in the right place to think something foolish and underhanded is underway, but I'm not quite sure you've figured out the how and the why yet. I'm not going to criticize your creativity, but just go into it with a better foundation of facts first, and the reason second.
So seeing the news conference Trump just said that if you’re unemployed, you will get Full salary wages of what you were earning for up to 4 months . This includes self employed and independent contractors....not sure about details, but damn that is a lot of dough. Good for those unemployed.
A friend of mine has been unemployed for 4 months . his unemployment checks were measly. His pay rate at the time before lay-off was $32 per hour as contractor. So now he will get unemployment checks at the rate of$32 per hour 40 hrs per week. I’m sure he will be happy
Okay up-thread someone stated on the 17th there were 8,000 deaths and today the 26th there are 21,276. That is 13,276 more in nine days. Of course the virus has spread in the past nine days so the pool of subjects is higher than it was on the 17th. I remember reading that 6 out of 7 cases were going unreported. In the U.S. this morning supposedly we have 68,572 confirmed cases. If you multiply that by 7 you get 480,004 cases as an estimate. If you divide that into the total number of deaths here in the U.S. you get 1,031 deaths divided by 480,004 estimated cases which turns out to be 0.00214 or 0.2% mortality. When I did this about the 14th or 15th the mortality rate was 0.5% so someone can correct me if I'm wrong but it appears the death rate percentage is actually going down with more confirmed cases which I think is good news right?
I've also read people who are going to the Dr. with their suspicions of having the virus are triaged at the Dr's. BEFORE they are sent to be tested so that a person whose temperature is below what? 101.4 F could well have this and be turned away due to mild symptoms. Also a Dr. I know stated a certain percentage of the tests will come back false negative so one can easily see the effects of this virus are probably not nearly as devestating as we are led to believe.
As to unemployment I think unemployment will rise about 2% for every day we stay locked down past this weekend and we'll wind up about 25-30% unemployed.
My guesstimate is it is going to cost 4-6 trillion dollars which we have no intention of paying back anyway but one might as well acknowledge the debt.
I see benefits though. Wall Street's multi-year ponzi scheme has suffered a setback and maybe some will have learned to not gamble all their retirement. Young people realize this is way overblown so maybe we will have a rational discussion about this once all the numbers are in in a couple of years and they can change the way our government responds to panic. Plus maybe it will get more of the Silent Majority out of their lethargy and call for change.
In the meantime hopefully old geezers such as myself will take proper precautions and people with pre-existing conditions will actually take action on their own to separate themselves from us the herd so they don't get sick. I know pneumonia is the scariest part for many but one of my relatives has been working the past two months and had pneumonia the whole time but she is under 40 and healthy (except for being sick ) so it really hasn't threatened her life, just slowed her down so just because you get it and don't get to have a ventilator doesn't mean you're going to die.
Unemployment claims just blew WAY past the previous record, beyond what the pessimistic estimates were.
We will see 25% unemployment AT LEAST.
Not to mention that U/E only counts official previously employed people. Not gig workers, etc...
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