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

[Anonymous]

I live on the west coast and the shanty towns are everywhere---EVERYWHERE!

My beloved little gym I've been attending classes at for a year had to close and now two coaches are out their livelihoods, along with hundreds more small business owners just like them. Landlords wouldn't work with them on the rent even though they couldn't have as many students because of distancing.

Everyone is a breath away from poverty or homelessness or joblessness, it seems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live on the west coast and the shanty towns are everywhere---EVERYWHERE!

My beloved little gym I've been attending classes at for a year had to close and now two coaches are out their livelihoods, along with hundreds more small business owners just like them. Landlords wouldn't work with them on the rent even though they couldn't have as many students because of distancing.

Everyone is a breath away from poverty or homelessness or joblessness, it seems.

+1 on the shanty towns 😞

Although, do you know middle class/upper middle class families affected yet?

[Anonymous]

The normal shock we have seen after any crisis has been delayed. There is no rule book for this to know how it will play out. It will eventually hit, but we have no idea how.

However, if something else big happens at the same time (military conflict, etc), I think then the hit will finally happen immediately as we are used to. The government cannot fend off two major crisis at once.

It is surreal, because it does seem like life is pretty normal right now. Just wait for this winter though when everything starts to catch up. Outdoor seating goes away at restaurants, nothing is held outdoors. Yikes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Why don’t you walk up and down the line at the food bank telling everyone they should eat cake.

People do live beyond their means. Or rather, they live to very limit of their means. In these BMW anecdotes, they didn't have to do that.

I get what PP's saying. If you're rolling up to the food bank with an iPhone 10 and a 50k car, well, you made choices.

[Anonymous]

As bad as the covid news is, many businesses seem to be open and doing okay. In fact some are doing better than before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live on the west coast and the shanty towns are everywhere---EVERYWHERE!

My beloved little gym I've been attending classes at for a year had to close and now two coaches are out their livelihoods, along with hundreds more small business owners just like them. Landlords wouldn't work with them on the rent even though they couldn't have as many students because of distancing.

Everyone is a breath away from poverty or homelessness or joblessness, it seems.

What’s shanty towns?

[Anonymous]

Wonder about this too, OP. I see long lines outside stores and I wonder how people have money to shop.
Couple of things going on I think. First, the unemployment assistance has propped up people who lost jobs. Second, the PPP kept a lot of people working longer than economic demand suggested they should. Third, the stock market is still healthy, which insulates a lot of people — businesses, retirees, many of us with 401(k), 529s, etc.
I fear each of these is on the way to getting worse, and then I predict we will all (or most of us) will feel much closer to the economic pain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Why don’t you walk up and down the line at the food bank telling everyone they should eat cake.

People do live beyond their means. Or rather, they live to very limit of their means. In these BMW anecdotes, they didn't have to do that.

I get what PP's saying. If you're rolling up to the food bank with an iPhone 10 and a 50k car, well, you made choices.

I never forget the neighbors faces when my husband first rode up in his 70k luxury truck. The nosey neighbors think he paid the ridiculous amount, when in fact he purchased an almost new (prior corporate lease most likely) truck from Carmax for $32k. My point is you don't know the circumstances behind people's purchases. And the federal government GS15 worker pulling in $166,000 a year has never missed a paycheck, or worried about job loss. He needs to stfu because he cant relate to people's job insecurities. Heck, he doesn't even have to leave his house and put him or his family in danger of contracting a deadly virus , but he feels so sanctimonious to lecture others about their money or lack thereof.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As bad as the covid news is, many businesses seem to be open and doing okay. In fact some are doing better than before.

other than the big techs and the grocery stores, which businesses are doing better?

[Anonymous]

People should cultivate an attitude of gratitude and humility if they have been fortunate enough to be in that 40% of Americans who are still doing ok.

And they should try to look inconspicous, because we don't yet know how bad this is going to get.

It's really not that hard to avoid judgment and blame.

[Anonymous]

It doesn't feel normal to me. And I am better off MC. It feels like the spin is on. Of course, being from former Yugoslavia, I might have some better idea to look for small clues. I am not the Sarajevo siege pp.
I can tell people are angry, when I go to a grocery store or get constant calls from doctors to come for the check up. Never before did they call me so many times. Doctors offices can't pay nurses and staff without patients. I see people buying only a few things at the grocery store as opposed to in March when people were loading up. Perhaps that is bcs they are still stocked up, but I don't think so. I ran through my stock of food. I think when a person is buying two cans and a box of pasta and one sauce, they are broke.
This is how it felt in Yugoslavia, just being uneasy and faking everything is fine, until nothing was on the shelf, and people were going through trash containers. Any of you feels that sense of unease that you just can't shake off? You know it is not just the pandemic, but as if you are living in a mirage that is about to shatter? Perhaps I am just paranoid bcs of what happened to my country, but this is the first time since then that I am feeling the same.

[Anonymous]

Our restaurants cannot find staff and therefore cannot open. Why would a server come to work when they make more on unemployment? There’s going to be a weird few weeks in August while people start going back to their service and retail jobs, and then things will bounce back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It doesn't feel normal to me. And I am better off MC. It feels like the spin is on. Of course, being from former Yugoslavia, I might have some better idea to look for small clues. I am not the Sarajevo siege pp.
I can tell people are angry, when I go to a grocery store or get constant calls from doctors to come for the check up. Never before did they call me so many times. Doctors offices can't pay nurses and staff without patients. I see people buying only a few things at the grocery store as opposed to in March when people were loading up. Perhaps that is bcs they are still stocked up, but I don't think so. I ran through my stock of food. I think when a person is buying two cans and a box of pasta and one sauce, they are broke.
This is how it felt in Yugoslavia, just being uneasy and faking everything is fine, until nothing was on the shelf, and people were going through trash containers. Any of you feels that sense of unease that you just can't shake off? You know it is not just the pandemic, but as if you are living in a mirage that is about to shatter? Perhaps I am just paranoid bcs of what happened to my country, but this is the first time since then that I am feeling the same.

I see it too.

I have been preparing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Why don’t you walk up and down the line at the food bank telling everyone they should eat cake.

People do live beyond their means. Or rather, they live to very limit of their means. In these BMW anecdotes, they didn't have to do that.

I get what PP's saying. If you're rolling up to the food bank with an iPhone 10 and a 50k car, well, you made choices.

I never forget the neighbors faces when my husband first rode up in his 70k luxury truck. The nosey neighbors think he paid the ridiculous amount, when in fact he purchased an almost new (prior corporate lease most likely) truck from Carmax for $32k. My point is you don't know the circumstances behind people's purchases. And the federal government GS15 worker pulling in $166,000 a year has never missed a paycheck, or worried about job loss. He needs to stfu because he cant relate to people's job insecurities. Heck, he doesn't even have to leave his house and put him or his family in danger of contracting a deadly virus , but he feels so sanctimonious to lecture others about their money or lack thereof.

I didn’t know they had luxury market segment for rednecks.

[Anonymous]

This is how it felt in Yugoslavia, just being uneasy and faking everything is fine, until nothing was on the shelf, and people were going through trash containers. Any of you feels that sense of unease that you just can't shake off? You know it is not just the pandemic, but as if you are living in a mirage that is about to shatter?

That’s how I feel too and I’m not from Yugoslavia.