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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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?  [/quote]

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.[/quote]

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. [/quote]

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. [/quote]

I can speak to this first hand.  A little over a dozen years ago, I had to divorce my abusive H. I had two little kids, including a nursing newborn. I hadn’t gained any weight during pregnancy due to HG and quickly lost 20 lbs just nursing. I had no income as I was on maternity leave and my H refused to pay child support. It would be another six months before the court forced him to.

So I went to the food pantry. In my nice car that was bought before my separation and the only transportation I had in winter with a newborn. And I didn’t have an iPhone, but I had a cellphone that my mom bought me because my H had cut the landlines before and she didn’t want me to be in that position ever again.

Selling the car and the phone would not have netted enough money to put food on my table for the months I waited for the courts to force my H to support DC. But the woman who loaded my car gave me a withering look without knowing my story. She wanted me to feel bad when she was supposed to be helping people like me as a work of corporal mercy.

Really stop and think if Jesus would judge people for cars and phones at a time like this. 
[/quote]
I'm so sorry that happened to you. We sold a car to help with a financial issue and honestly it was so hard to buy one again because we didn't have the money or credit to do so. [b]If a situation is temporary it doesn't make sense to give up cars and phones, two things that most people need to find work.[/b] [/quote]

+1, families can and should hold on to their cars. We don't have public transportation to support most jobs and obvs public transportation is affected by the pandemic. Case in point, they needed it to get in line for PP's food bank! It's not feasible to instantly downsize to a less expensive car because most people have financed their car. Especially right now and especially if you lost your job. [/quote]

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