America is in an economic tailspin. Why does life feel so normal?

[Anonymous]

My next door neighbor filled in her in ground pool.

She started this right before Covid.

She is redesigning her back yard. It is pretty big project.

The subs are slammed. The concrete guy has a 4 month bag log he is so busy. She is struggling to get subs out to the jobsite. Each guy has about a 3 month backlog.

[Anonymous]

I don't think that the economic downturn is hitting all sectors equally. Some businesses are really hurting and some are going gangbusters. My company is insane with work right now. My mom's company laid off a lot of people in one section but the other sections are firmly afloat. It just depends.

Manufacturers that feed into the civilian airline industry are troubled. Those that feed into the military side are more confident. Other manufacturers are doing very well.

Some agricultural products are struggling (soybeans, China) but others are selling out.

The small economy (tiny start-ups, people switching their small businesses over to something currently marketable) is doing quite well. People are adaptable.

It's a mixed picture but it certainly isn't all bad or all good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All the economic metrics show us at Great Depression levels yet life seems so normal. I know DC is always more insulated from economic downturns but stories from my relatives in other cities bely a sense or normalcy. Why is that? My grandparents had depression era stories of long bread lines, wearing tattered clothes, shantytowns popping up in cities, etc. Are we just too early in this cycle to see the worst effects?

There is a mile-long line of cars the day they are giving out food boxes at our local elementary school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All the economic metrics show us at Great Depression levels yet life seems so normal. I know DC is always more insulated from economic downturns but stories from my relatives in other cities bely a sense or normalcy. Why is that? My grandparents had depression era stories of long bread lines, wearing tattered clothes, shantytowns popping up in cities, etc. Are we just too early in this cycle to see the worst effects?

Get outside your bubble.

The soup kitchen lines where I live in this area have always stretched a block or more. And there are car lines that are hours long.

I can see shantytown in the wooded areas around here. They have been here for years. Once the evictions start next month, you’ll see more families sleeping in cars and on the streets.

I saw a family trying to take clothing out of a donation box last week. They were looking for shoes for a boy a bit younger than my own. The mom said that when Payless closed, shoes became too expensive. I gave her $40 and she started crying. I grew up with too tight shoes due to poverty and it’s something that still breaks my heart.

Honestly, pp doesn't have to go too far outside her bubble to see the impact of the pandemic. I was house hunting not too long ago, and I came upon a long trail of cars waiting to get into a soup kitchen near Briggs Chaney Rd. The traffic to get in was so backed up that they had cops out directing traffic. This was in May.

I volunteer for my church and we pack boxes with groceries and delivery them every day. Yes, people come more than in pre-pandemic times, but at the same time, all these people come in a nice cars (I've handled boxes to BMW, Escalate, hondas, etc.), a lot of ladies comes with their nails done professionally, and holding the latest model of iPhones.

What would you have them do? Throw away their phones and sell their cars at a steep loss?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All the economic metrics show us at Great Depression levels yet life seems so normal. I know DC is always more insulated from economic downturns but stories from my relatives in other cities bely a sense or normalcy. Why is that? My grandparents had depression era stories of long bread lines, wearing tattered clothes, shantytowns popping up in cities, etc. Are we just too early in this cycle to see the worst effects?

Get outside your bubble.

The soup kitchen lines where I live in this area have always stretched a block or more. And there are car lines that are hours long.

I can see shantytown in the wooded areas around here. They have been here for years. Once the evictions start next month, you’ll see more families sleeping in cars and on the streets.

I saw a family trying to take clothing out of a donation box last week. They were looking for shoes for a boy a bit younger than my own. The mom said that when Payless closed, shoes became too expensive. I gave her $40 and she started crying. I grew up with too tight shoes due to poverty and it’s something that still breaks my heart.

Honestly, pp doesn't have to go too far outside her bubble to see the impact of the pandemic. I was house hunting not too long ago, and I came upon a long trail of cars waiting to get into a soup kitchen near Briggs Chaney Rd. The traffic to get in was so backed up that they had cops out directing traffic. This was in May.

I volunteer for my church and we pack boxes with groceries and delivery them every day. Yes, people come more than in pre-pandemic times, but at the same time, all these people come in a nice cars (I've handled boxes to BMW, Escalate, hondas, etc.), a lot of ladies comes with their nails done professionally, and holding the latest model of iPhones.

Your attitude defeats the whole point of volunteering at church.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All the economic metrics show us at Great Depression levels yet life seems so normal. I know DC is always more insulated from economic downturns but stories from my relatives in other cities bely a sense or normalcy. Why is that? My grandparents had depression era stories of long bread lines, wearing tattered clothes, shantytowns popping up in cities, etc. Are we just too early in this cycle to see the worst effects?

Get outside your bubble.

The soup kitchen lines where I live in this area have always stretched a block or more. And there are car lines that are hours long.

I can see shantytown in the wooded areas around here. They have been here for years. Once the evictions start next month, you’ll see more families sleeping in cars and on the streets.

I saw a family trying to take clothing out of a donation box last week. They were looking for shoes for a boy a bit younger than my own. The mom said that when Payless closed, shoes became too expensive. I gave her $40 and she started crying. I grew up with too tight shoes due to poverty and it’s something that still breaks my heart.

Honestly, pp doesn't have to go too far outside her bubble to see the impact of the pandemic. I was house hunting not too long ago, and I came upon a long trail of cars waiting to get into a soup kitchen near Briggs Chaney Rd. The traffic to get in was so backed up that they had cops out directing traffic. This was in May.

I volunteer for my church and we pack boxes with groceries and delivery them every day. Yes, people come more than in pre-pandemic times, but at the same time, all these people come in a nice cars (I've handled boxes to BMW, Escalate, hondas, etc.), a lot of ladies comes with their nails done professionally, and holding the latest model of iPhones.

Your attitude defeats the whole point of volunteering at church.

+1 Shows a complete lack of empathy and compassion. It's humiliating to ask for free food. To have someone judge you for the state of your fingernails or your cell phone is just sickening.

[Anonymous]

All the nastiness in the replies help no one. Can we please have a conversation for once without the back biting ?

If not for us my kids and family members would be in bad shape. The lock down put everyone behind on everything. Don't believe the news. No one we know is getting paid to stay home. This is the real. Clawing back is hard even if you had savings which for most people is a dream. Paycheck to paycheck was life then and now if you still have a job. It has not been easy. My grandson's other grandparents are losing their business. Family owned it directly affects all of them. They were just starting to turn a profit now it's going under. I doubt they recover from this.

And please, don't judge anyone that drives a nice car, has a nice phone, dresses well. We bought our kid a car and phone. Without those he could not work. We makes sure everyone eats and has whatever they need. I love them all. I don't care if I spend my last penny, we will help.

So all you people not hurting go find family or friends to help. Evictions and foreclosures start tomorrow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It feels normal because about 40% of Americans are doing ok. It's the other 60% that we have to worry about. That's why I favor UBI (temporary at first, but later extended) and universal health care.

I was listening to NPR this morning and they were interviewing Senator Lankford from OK. The conservative view on this crisis is that we can't help everyone and we shouldn't try. He pretty much said that. So my best advice is to vote. It's time to renew the New Deal and make it more comprehensive.

I've been listening to the book "Tightrope" by Nicholas Kristoff and Sheryl WuDunn. It's shocking.

[Anonymous]

I'm shocked too.

The whole industries are taking a big hit or folding - airline, hospitality, small business, retail, car rental, etc, etc.

Yet life seems so normal. People go to restaurants, go on vacations (beaches are full), buy second houses, remodel, build swimming pools, etc.

[Anonymous]

I paid my house off last year. Nothing fancy, bought it 18 years ago and added onto it, mostly myself. Its far better than I could live in if I had to pay someone else to do it for me. We live on one salary, mine, albeit its GS-15. I'm 42. I have 150 grand in the bank, cash savings. We drive old cars, clean our own house, and cook our own meals at home. I repair my own older iphone when it breaks (they do). I'm having to telework but grateful to have a job. (Just because I'm debt free doesnt mean I'm expense free.) People in bread lines in BMWs had the income, they just chose to spend it and not build up a 6-8 month savings. Maybe now they'll learn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are not in an economic disaster. Stocks are at all time highs, housing market remains very robust, this is the biggest year for boat sales in history, and you can’t get a pool installed for like a year because there is such a backlog. Nearly every neighbor I’ve spoken to is looking at a second home purchase or trying to decide what to do with extra disposable income from no vacations.

Sure, you can say a lot of those metrics are for the “wealthy” but they also translate to jobs and tax revenue. This is not remotely like the Depression.

That said, we could absolutely get there. The $$ printing press has to slow down at some point. And setting that aside if we start to see massive credit defaults in the next 6 months, who knows what that does to the banks and then the larger economy. So I personally am not going on any spending spree just yet. But let’s not pretend this is the 1930s based on your anonymous anecdote about the relative length of the line at a neighborhood food kitchen.

Youre right. It is so much worse than that.

How about facts?
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/30/economy/us-economy-2020-second-quarter/index.html

[Anonymous]

This whole thread is proof of the DCUM bubble you live in where $200K HHI is not “rich” to most people.

IT FEELS NORMAL BECAUSE YOU ARE EATING CAKE, MARIE ANTOINETTE. Maybe if you bought your homes where you would see the “poors” you would understand the danger of a larger and more impoverished class of citizens that have no job to go to, or risk dying if they do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This whole thread is proof of the DCUM bubble you live in where $200K HHI is not “rich” to most people.

IT FEELS NORMAL BECAUSE YOU ARE EATING CAKE, MARIE ANTOINETTE. Maybe if you bought your homes where you would see the “poors” you would understand the danger of a larger and more impoverished class of citizens that have no job to go to, or risk dying if they do.

It will take a year or two but the trickle down will happen to those people as well and then it will be far more pronounced and business as usual will go to the wayside.
One thing that will definitely help make things better this time around - no housing bubble for lower middle class that will burst and leave people homeless and gas prices are really low.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I paid my house off last year. Nothing fancy, bought it 18 years ago and added onto it, mostly myself. Its far better than I could live in if I had to pay someone else to do it for me. We live on one salary, mine, albeit its GS-15. I'm 42. I have 150 grand in the bank, cash savings. We drive old cars, clean our own house, and cook our own meals at home. I repair my own older iphone when it breaks (they do). I'm having to telework but grateful to have a job. (Just because I'm debt free doesnt mean I'm expense free.) People in bread lines in BMWs had the income, they just chose to spend it and not build up a 6-8 month savings. Maybe now they'll learn.

This is irresponsible corporate spending that got us here, and that takes most of the $2T relief. Not the financially ignorant with their chump change in the thousands.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Great Depression didn’t touch everyone. I kept asking my grandparents what it was like and all they said was they took in borders.

True, DH's family owned a farm, and their stories were all about feeling bad having to turn so many people away offering to work for food. There were just too many to be able to help them all.