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I question one big premise from the opening post: that most jobs can be done from home.
The reality is that they can't. Millions of blue collar, as well as white collar, jobs depend on going to a work site. Not everyone moves electrons around for a living.
For those millions of people who don't have the luxury of working in their pajamas being out of work and unpaid for a month is devastating and you will see an uptick in foreclosures and repossessions as soon as the temporary moratoria on them expires.
The PPP is a joke for many workers. Their employers either didn't apply for it, were too stupid to be able to fill out the paperwork or received it and redirected the money to other uses.
Yes, exactly. The support staff at all the colleges and universities that have closed can't work from home, because most of those jobs involve serving the students in one way or another, and to some extent--faculty. Conceivably, admissions office staff will continue to work, assuming admissions for the 2020/21 academic year will proceed as planned. But the staff in all the academic departments are SOL. I guess they're furloughed, which means at least they'll get their jobs back, but there's not much they can do from home.
What makes me mad, is so many people expecting someone else to help them or do something for them! Ive lost count of the people on Facebook that type out their sob story and how they have no money for rent, or their car payment in 3 days...but they are sitting on Facebook in the middle of the day!
When you desperately need money...you go out and FIND work to do, I dont care what kind of work it is, or how little it pays...if you need money right now...you have no other choice!
Ive had to resort to this a handful of times, the last time was about 4 yrs ago, I ended up raking leaves for a guy and bagging them all up, it was a pretty big yard, and there were alot of leaves, and he was only going to pay me $80. but I needed it right then, so I had no choice, but to put my gloves on and go to it.
There is PLENTY of work out there if someone needs to make money right now for bills.
You do realize the main Jobs offered right now are the Walmart, Targets and supermarkets that are essential businesses or Amazon which has had many problems with social distancing and virus spreads. I hoenstly think that the siutation with Covid-19 is much much different than the normal unemployed worker. This is partially why the federal government wrongfully gave $600 a week to those that can get on unemployment...
When the Spanish Flu occurred in 1918 and lasted through 1920.... which was our last really big pandemic, they also implemented shut downs but the economy bounced back which is why we had the ROARING TWENTIES. The economy in the 1920s was good all the way until the stock market crash of 1929.
Not quite; the popular view of life in the "roaring" Twenties has been badly distorted by both the big and small screen.
The doughboys hadn't even returned from their "European vacation" when the economy went into recession: there were multiple contributing factors -- an end to the "ramping up" of wartime industry, readjustment of the railroads from government control and misguided planning (a mistake so serious that even FDR's "brain trust" didn't repeat it in 1941), and a spasm of two-digit inflation. Another slowdown came in 1923-24.
But it was a third "bump in the road to prosperity" that really backfired; business activity slowed again in the spring of 1927, and the managers of the Federal Reserve, egged on by the "monetary policy" theories promoted by English economist John Maynard Keynes (whose most famous quote was, and still is "In the long run, we are all dead") pumped newly-"created" capital into the economy as never before. But instead of funding new property, plant, and private infrastructure, most of that money went into the stock market, and on "margin" at that.
In early October of 1929, a conclave of business leaders was organized to meet at Henry Ford's "Greenfield Village", (then under development at Dearborn, MI), with the high-minded intention of "eliminating the cycle of boom-and-bust". A few days later, the market sold off as never before.
Still, the Wall Street crash did not translate into hard times on Main Street -- at least not at first, and for quite a while. Consumer spending held up all through 1930 and most of 1931, and newspapers of the day bear this out. But for whatever reason, a deflationary spiral began in the fall of the latter year. The much-ballyhooed "Hundred Days" of 1933 to the contrary, the cycle wasn't broken until the Supreme Court invalidated the National Recovery Act (last of several schemes to "prime the pump" and artificially stimulate the economy), in the spring of 1935.
For those who seek an unpoliticized picture of daily life during these times, I'd recommend the book Anything Can Happen By George Papashvily and his wife Helen; the Papashvilys were, at the time, recent immigrants from what was then Soviet Georgia. Happily, both were to survive well into the 1970's.
Last edited by 2nd trick op; 04-26-2020 at 03:19 PM..
Yeah well it's going to be tough for everybody. I really don't expect things to get back to normal until a vaccine is available.
Also there's too many uncertainties right now about how long immunity lasts.
As for getting people back to work... I am not sure how well that's going to work when PPE is in short supply and you got business owners who are totally clueless about how to protect their employees or their customers.
Even if you educate these people on how to keep their employees and customers safe... the question is...
1. Will they do it?
2. How are the safety measures going to be enforced?
The way I see it for #2... the states will have to hire more inspectors to evaluate each and every company to make sure they are following the guidelines.
Also... companies that don't follow the guidelines in my opinion are going to be vulnerable to potential lawsuits from their employees or customers if they get sick. There also may be an additional strain that is put on the BWC (Bureau of Worker's Compensation) for sick employees.
All valid questions. And yes, I'm also skeptical about the odds of a successful re opening of all shutdown businesses. I guess what I was attempting to address is the fact that having so many divergent views doesn't mean much in the larger picture, but it certainly raises the specter of some potentially ugly civil unrest. And that would be a real shame. So, let government govern, and allow for some steam to blow off while we all try to get through this.
To the extent that this is crushing the moral of those in dire straits, it matters that we understand the reasons for empathy. I don't see an easy path forward, and I'm doing well considering the circumstances, at this juncture I'm hoping for the best for everyone, whiners, libertarians, politicos, whacked lefties, right wing nut jobs, corporate crusty's, and even Sean and Rush, if they promise to shut the hell up.
I totally agree, it turns my stomach to hear what some of these crazy people are saying today, they act like the world revolves around them and how they expect things to be and everyone else is just wrong.
Compared to other hard times of the past, this is a freaking breeze...just imagine what Anne Frank and her family went thru...and then to hear people whining and crying about having to lay around the house (while getting stimulus checks, unemployment, the extra $600), they can lay around, sleep til noon everyday, watch tv or play video games all day...oh yes, these people are truly suffering!!! LOL
I would hate to think if WW3 ever breaks out, what these people would do! If they cannot even survive this, they are going to be a wreck in something much more dangerous, heck, they would probably be whining and crying about having no internet or they can no longer buy things made in certain countries!
Something else Ive been hearing from numerous people, I guess some are not eligible to receive unemployment or the stimulus, or they are having problems signing up, they are complaining and crying about how they will make ends meet this month, asking how the state and federal govt is going to help them...they are all over Facebook, they do not know what to do with themselves!
My grandparents were alive during the Depression, I grew up hearing stories of what they had to go thru to get a little bit of money, again, to hear people today whining about this, there is PLENTY they can do to make money, its summer time, go out and mow some yards, bush trimming, various odd jobs people still need to have done, even if they arent making much, its something coming in, they can buy bread, milk, food for the day, but NO, they sit around at home waiting for the govt to help them, or cancel their rent/mortgage. LOL it really makes me sick at how pathetic and weak people have become.
My father grew up in the Deep South during the Depression. He said they always had enough to eat, but there was never any spare monies. He worked all his life, at first because he had to, then when he was old for retirement, because he wanted to. And the day after he graduated from high school, he VOLUNTEERED for service in WWII and got shipped off to Europe.
These doctors and "experts" definitely have an agenda, which doesn't benefit the masses. Certainly there's many good doctors and scientist whom are working hard, studying this virus. But there's also many--especially those getting big bucks from certain institutes and organizations--whom have a sinister agenda at play.
EXACTLY to both statements in bold. Its insane the amount of personal responsibility and accountability people seem to lack since the virus. We can even argue that they lacked personal responsibility before this virus even started. Rights and freedoms no longer matter because DEATH is abound! HILARIOUS. Since death awaits us at every single turn and its the ONLY thing that's certain in life!
These doctors and "experts" definitely have an agenda, which doesn't benefit the masses. Certainly there's many good doctors and scientist whom are working hard, studying this virus. But there's also many--especially those getting big bucks from certain institutes and organizations--whom have a sinister agenda at play.
We NEVER hear good news, just constant bad news. Why don't we hear about the recovery rates? Why don't we hear about those whom have recovered? And even if we hear about recovery rates or people whom have recovered, the mainstream media also turns that into bad news! Its always the "Yes, I've recovered by my oh my the torment I been through!" or the "Yes, people recover but have long term damage in one way or another". Never hear about those whom have made a perfectly fine recovery.
As to date I've known 15 people whom got the virus. Two of them had it badly because 1) They're BOTH obese and 2) Both have respiratory sickness. Thankfully they've made it through of course. The other 13, from what I know had very mild symptoms. One of my friends is 54, has hereditary high blood pressure and is on dialysis. Yet, he's made it through unscathed and reported that he had common colds that effected him much worse then the virus. And he treated it holistically, as he usually does.
We never hear about the ELDERLY who survive. Ever. Just bad news!
The media regardless if you talk liberal or conservative never air positive stories except at the end of a newscast. It is all doom and gloom from that side. Look at Fox declaring a War on Christmas by the liberals by saying Happy Holidays versus Merry Christmas... The liberals do it too but it is the media in general.
You never really hear of people getting sick with the flu or dying from the flu unless they are celebrities. Doesn't mean that don't happen like those regardless of age that survive. That said, it is unknown if unlike the flu, the disease have long term effects. My father had pneumonia a time or two from the flu and it took him out but he largely wasn't effected by it after he got better. If he got Covid-19 and survived, it would just add to the lung alements he has like Valley Fever...
Lockdown has produced people who when told are to do something they don't agree with, they lash out and call it "communism". Never mind they couldn't be bothered to go to a dictionary and actually look up what it means.
Lockdown has produced people who when told are to do something they don't agree with, they lash out and call it "communism". Never mind they couldn't be bothered to go to a dictionary and actually look up what it means.
I can live with the word "fascism" or "Nazism" being applied. When the lockdown is of indeterminate length and seemingly arbitrary what are people going to think.
Sinister agenda? It sounds like you need to take off your tin foil hat, amigo.
BTW... for all you conspiracy loving, science hating folks... I am curious... if a vaccine becomes available... how many of you are going to get it?
Or are you also anti-vaxxers?
WHAT? Where did I say I hate science? Show me...I'll WAIT. Because in fact, I LOVE science and its the very reason why I am so much into health, virology, biology, technology etc.
Anti-vaxxer? I've stated a few times already that I am NOT anti-vaccine. At the same time, I am not going to get a vaccine if I don't feel comfortable with it. And I am NOT getting a vaccine for this virus. Why should I? Why should WE? It takes years to develop a vaccine, all the date for this virus isn't even conclusive, yet they want to get a vaccine for us? They keep telling us this one day, that the other but then want to shove a vaccine in our arse. NOPE. NO THANK YOU. I'll wait a few more years, IF that. I would highly advise that you do some info on the new vaccine they plan to come out with.
As for my tinfoil hat, I'd prefer to keep it on. Looks quite hot on me actually, thanks!
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