Yesterday the virus reached all 50 states.
In Las Vegas, all casinos closed at midnight, something that will last for three months.
About 65,000 workers will be laid-off for those three months, and when the casinos do open after that time - if they do - then many of those workers simply won’t return.
They’ll be in other industries by then, if not another city or another state entirely. Many will be forced to move in with relatives because of this crisis, and some might not get back onto their feet for years to come.
A whole generation of young children will be scarred for life because of this shutdown, not because of the death toll, but because of the emotional toll that the financial toll will bring about.
The economic repercussions are now outweighing the physiological repercussions. Collapsing our economy will probably result in more deaths long-term than the virus, when you consider the crime that will occur. Spousal abuse, assaults, murder and suicides will all go up. Drug abuse and alcohol abuse will go up. Deaths from accidents will soar.
Martial law will come, and with it looting and arson. That’ll be just the beginning.
It’ll be devastating.
The stimulus package is a joke.
It’ll cost taxpayers $1 trillion, and $750 billion of that will go to large corporations. Just a quarter of it will go to common American workers as direct checks.
And despite the rich assholes in charge saying they want that money to go out in the next two weeks, those checks for $1,000 or so won’t even be going out for another six weeks.
My God, what a mess.
Personally, I don’t want the money. I spent the last couple of years saving my money - that’s why I’m alright at the moment.
But most Americans like me - working in the bar and restaurant industry - don’t have any money saved and won’t be able to pay their bills in two weeks.
How long is $1,000 going to go for someone with no savings? If they have a roommate, then around $500 of that will go to rent in two weeks and other bills, and at least $100 more for food. Probably $100 for gas and other miscellaneous expenses. Most of the rest will probably be spent on drugs and alcohol and cigarettes.
By the second week of April, that $1,000 will be gone for the majority of the people that got it.
Then what?
Now I hear that the amount is going to go up to $2,000. So instead of running out in the first week of April, it’ll run out in the second or third.
Handouts are no substitute for the jobs the government stole from us.
We don’t want your money; we want to work. Open up our businesses!
This is when you hope you own a gun. Because we have a lot of low-income individuals with no money and no resources and they’re feeling awfully desperate.
I suspect the election in November will be postponed indefinitely. The opposition will be so worn-out by then that they’ll offer only token complaints.
Today we closed the border with Canada.
Earlier this week, thousands of college students flocked to the Florida beaches for spring break. Most weren’t concerned about the virus, as they were washing their hands and they weren’t sharing cups.
Social distancing isn’t really important for many Americans. The smarter thing to do might have been to let the old Americans self-isolate.
Once we stop self-isolating, the virus will spread anyways. Delaying the inevitable.
Treasury Secretary Steven Munuchin mentioned that the unemployment rate could reach 20%. The Great Recession saw 10%. At the height of the Great Depression we hit 25%.
Dow futures had another drop, indicating that another market stop would happen the next day soon after trading started. It’d be the fourth time since the crisis started two weeks ago.
I sold off most of my stock, figuring that losing a third of my money is better than losing all of it. Most figure the bottom is a long way off still, and since Congress won’t be getting any stimulus legislation passed until next week, they’re probably right.
Thousands of banks will collapse, mostly the smaller banks. There’s simply no demand for credit. Who’d want to borrow to open a business in this climate? So the banks won’t make any money and they’ll go under.
The casinos want a bail out, as do the cruise ships and the airlines. Many more companies will line up with their hands out.
2008 was a cakewalk compared to what we have on our hands now.
Tens of thousands will get the virus and they’ll get sick. Thousands will die, maybe more. But millions will have their lives ruined for years because of the economic insanity we’re embarked upon.
It’s too late to put the cat in the bag. The state governments won’t walk back their decision to close; indeed, they’ll probably lengthen them.
Millions of American families will be ruined because of this.
We’re effectively killing the young to save the old. It makes no rational or logical or economic sense.
All because of the flu.
Do the ends justify the means; do the means justify the ends?
It’s awfully hard to tell, and in the coming weeks when things begin to get out of control even more and people get stir crazy and run out of money we’ll see segments of society begin to collapse.
We’re doing nothing but slowing it down. The virus will run its course; it can’t be quarantined.
Instead of pulling the Band-Aid off quickly and getting it over with, we’re going to drag the pain out...for months, and then when we do integrate socially once again, it’ll spread as it should be spreading now.
Delaying the inevitable.
