When will you go back to normal?

[Boardwalk Jedi]

As soon as things are open I am ready to go. I am relatively young and healthy. Ready to support the herd immunity theory

Ugh. I'm not specifically pointing out you, but I've heard this statement so many times and it drives me crazy because it's so ignorant. We are nowhere near close to herd immunity on this disease. You really need a vaccine for that. Otherwise your option is a significant majority of the population contracting the disease to become immune....and we will lose way too many more people to do that.

 

[3threebabies]

Bankruptcy courts are mostly shutdown right now.

They are, and in our state law offices are closed as non life sustaining businesses. It doesn’t stop our local attorneys from having virtual meetings as they mention in ads. Civil attorneys can’t afford to take any time off, so they have all adapted quickly. They were the 1st group to update social distancing advertising. They may be “ambulance chasers,“ but I have a feeling most regional civil law offices getting loans are putting that money right back into the local economy.

 

[Snowysmom]

I had to apply for unemployment due to having hours severely cut. It was very humbling to me as I want to work my 40 hours and earn my money that way. However, I need to get what I can to pay the bills. I am thankful to still have a job and know if this goes on longer that I may not have a job in a couple of months. At the very best my reduced hours will go on for several months because of the down turn so far. I want this economy to be back as soon as possible so people can earn a living again. I want my coworkers who got furloughed to be back with us working. I know there are those who like getting the $600 a week extra and don't want to go back to work because they make more now. However, the extra $600 a week will not last forever. I believe it goes until July 31.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Bankruptcy courts are mostly shutdown right now.

business will be booming soon.

 

[RamblingMad]

When I can wear PPE as a Halloween costume and people laugh. That’s when we will have reached normal.

 

[EveDallas]

Lots of people haven’t even received their first unemployment checks yet. I only know one person who has received the extra $600. Some can’t even apply!

food bank lines in my area are stretched out for miles. Food is running out daily before they can get to everyone.

just because someone will eventually get unemployment doesn’t help them now.

Oh sweetie the good thing is we get to spend time as a family but we can’t eat. Oh honey you’re sick, well we have no insurance.

Mortgages are being pushed back for 3 months if you lost your job but it’s not helping renters. Sure you can’t be evicted right now but once that rule is lifted landlords are going to want their money yesterday.

But hey, according to some people here there's nothing to worry about cause people are eventually going to be raking in dough hand over fist and then the problem will be getting the poor, lazy folk to work again. So all people need to do is file for unemployment and wait for that cash register to start ringing

 

[b2k1121]

But hey, according to some people here there's nothing to worry about cause people are eventually going to be raking in dough hand over fist and then the problem will be getting the poor, lazy folk to work again. So all people need to do is file for unemployment and wait for that cash register to start ringing

What is your solution? What else should people do besides try to get unemployment if they need it? Just complaining about how rough it is for some people isn't going to solve anything. In a perfect world, the virus never happens and no one is hurt, but it happened and now we deal with it. Be angry at the government for not getting guidance to states in a timely manner. Be angry at the states for not being prepared to get their systems up for people in time.

 

[rjb123]

This is tough. I voted summer, as that seems likely to be when we start the process of being more "normal". I am hoping that kids get back to sports etc by June (please!!) but we will still be laying low other than practices for them. I think that summer hopefully we will start to *feel* more normal, and then by fall really continue (though I might be more nervous by then as flu season will be starting). I crave normal life, but am nervous because I think that the restrictions will be continuing for quite a while and in many different ways.

 

[fortwildernessishome]

Such a sad state of affairs that we supposedly had a booming economy back in Feb., but the majority of families can't pay rent and buy food for their families after one or two missed paychecks...…...sad.

 

[b2k1121]

Such a sad state of affairs that we supposedly had a booming economy back in Feb., but the majority of families can't pay rent and buy food for their families after one or two missed paychecks...…...sad.

Right. I think hearing other people say how great the economy is over and over convinces people their situation is also great. Record highs in the stock market doesn't help people that don't own stocks. Rising real estate value doesn't help people that don't own property. Low unemployment numbers don't help when many are underpaid or underemployed and can lose their job in an instant like this. Having health insurance tied to your employment is insane.

 

[Boardwalk Jedi]

Such a sad state of affairs that we supposedly had a booming economy back in Feb., but the majority of families can't pay rent and buy food for their families after one or two missed paychecks...…...sad.

Wealth inequality is an entirely different discussion - one that should probably be had in light of this along with our attitudes to work while sick, health care access and other things. Unfortunately I am not hopeful given the amount of people I see (especially those in charge) that are more concerned about their financial investments than basic human life.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Everyone kept saying the economy was great, but I guess I just don’t understand how it works?

 

[3threebabies]

Everyone kept saying the economy was great, but I guess I just don’t understand how it works?

I don't think anyone truly understands, but at least you and I have the honesty to admit it I think it is pretty much like everything. It is human nature to view life through our personal lens with blinders on.

 

[RamblingMad]

Right. I think hearing other people say how great the economy is over and over convinces people their situation is also great. Record highs in the stock market doesn't help people that don't own stocks. Rising real estate value doesn't help people that don't own property. Low unemployment numbers don't help when many are underpaid or underemployed and can lose their job in an instant like this. Having health insurance tied to your employment is insane.

This is going to be a huge wake up call for a lot of people. This is our first pandemic. And the way things are set up doesn’t really work. We’re not going to bounce back fast. Folks are going to need time to catch up on lost work time and pay pass due bills. This is going to get a lot uglier the longer we remain shutdown. It doesn’t help that consumer credit is through the roof.

 

[fortwildernessishome]

Right. I think hearing other people say how great the economy is over and over convinces people their situation is also great. Record highs in the stock market doesn't help people that don't own stocks. Rising real estate value doesn't help people that don't own property. Low unemployment numbers don't help when many are underpaid or underemployed and can lose their job in an instant like this. Having health insurance tied to your employment is insane.

Exactly!!! Maybe now, people will realize that we didn't have the great economy that was being preached to us!

 

[jkh36619]

We do/did have a good economy. If you don't, let it crash and see what kind of shape we'll be in. Our problem as Americans is we are addicted t o"stuff". We like owning things. Nice cars. big screen tv's etc. To go along with that, we aren't very good at managing finances. We think nothing about buying a $5 cup of coffee and a $10 lunch every day instead of putting $15 a day in a rainy day fund. Driving around town looking an big houses with nice cars I used to think man these people are loaded. Now I understand most just own a ton of dept. I have tried to adapt to more of a minimalist lifestyle and it has helped. Just cant seem to kick the Disney habit tho. I hope this is a huge wake up call for some folks as well.

 

[Welsh_Dragon]

Our problem as Americans is we are addicted t o"stuff".

Not just Americans. It is the same here. It wasn’t that many generations ago that debt/HP/loans/credit cards were considered quite shameful. We had debtors prisons. I am not suggesting that this was right but there has been a definite shift from ‘save to buy’ to ‘buy and (try to) pay off’. The financial sector just doesn’t seem to learn from its mistakes.

 

[Colleen27]

At my place of employment we had to let all the temps go. They are all now on unemployment. They are all making more now on unemployment than they were doing production for us. That will last for 4 months. Problem is, we will likely want to call them back before the end of July but there will be no incentive for them to come back. Blah to that.

That is likely to be an issue with temps and others who don't have employer-subsidized benefits. Those of us who have insurance through a job, though, end up on the other side - the $600 supplement falls short of covering full wages plus the cost of continuing health insurance via COBRA. So there's still a BIG incentive to get back to work because the cost of staying insured without an employer subsidy is staggering.

Maybe employers complaining about how this creates a disincentive to going back to work should start offering benefits to lure people back...

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Everyone kept saying the economy was great, but I guess I just don’t understand how it works?

I don't fully understand how it all works myself but I can come from experience living in KS..under our prior governor we saw our state plunge in terms of economy, credit rating, surplus in funds, road conditions (which were one of the best in the country), education financial aid, etc.

We were just getting back to a level of stability after multiple years of mess, our unemployment rate was low (and something I had mentioned previously with respects to the restaurant industry), housing market was strong in that it was a hot seller's market for years (pricing quite high but also new builds were coming back in the last 5 or so years), etc. There was even an agreement between KS and MO on jobs as it was quite common for a long enough while that companies would switch back and forth either in headquarters or office buildings in our metro between the two states based on whoever would give the company more tax incentives.

That for the most part is going to come crashing back down (aside from the agreement between the two states regarding companies I don't see that being impacted by the virus, housing market may or may not sorta depends on how you look at that one here).

 

[Colleen27]

We do/did have a good economy. If you don't, let it crash and see what kind of shape we'll be in. Our problem as Americans is we are addicted t o"stuff". We like owning things. Nice cars. big screen tv's etc. To go along with that, we aren't very good at managing finances. We think nothing about buying a $5 cup of coffee and a $10 lunch every day instead of putting $15 a day in a rainy day fund. Driving around town looking an big houses with nice cars I used to think man these people are loaded. Now I understand most just own a ton of dept. I have tried to adapt to more of a minimalist lifestyle and it has helped. Just cant seem to kick the Disney habit tho. I hope this is a huge wake up call for some folks as well.

This is a very upper middle class view of the problems with our economy.

It takes more than a booming stock market and low unemployment to constitute a good economy. Quality of jobs matters too. The lack of real wage growth, coupled with skyrocketing costs of health care, housing and education, and the shift to part time and contingent work have made the recovery very much a not-good economy for the bottom half of wage earners. Wages in many sectors aren't even growing fast enough to keep up with insurance premiums - the last two cost-of-living increases my husband got were more than fully offset by increases in the employee share of our insurance costs, and his employer is generally better than most non-union workplaces in his industry. That's not a strong economy for workers, even if his employer did post record profits in both of those years.