Live data from Hacker News

Eat for $1.50 per Day – Layoffs, Coronavirus Quarantine, Food Shortages

efficiencyiseverything.com

121–130 of 289 posts

Re: Eat for $1.50 per Day – Layoffs, Coronavirus Quarantine, Food Shortages

#121
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a quarantine not an apocalypse.

Truth. But, people aren’t thinking clearly. Two things could make this situation a lot worse. 1. A worker strike because of panic, or overwork, or opportunity, or inequality, or whatever. I hope everyone has realized the truck drivers and shelf stockers are way more important than Hollywood celebs. But I wouldn’t “rely” on shelves just being magically stocked as panic increases. There is unfortunately a smug level of…

>I hope everyone has realized the truck drivers and shelf stockers are way more important than Hollywood celebs

The issue with pay isn't just how important a job is. It also depends on how replaceable people are in a job,and how much skilled and educated you need to be in order to do that job. Pretty much anyone that isn't too old or disabled can stock shelves, including kids. Not everyone can entertain millions of people to a high degree, or be a doctor or lawyer.

A strike in this situation will probably result in automation being pushed harder, because there will be a sense of "these people will abandon their duties just when they're most needed". There is also a sense of duty that nurses and doctors have towards their professions. Plus there are hundreds of thousands who got laid off or got their hours cut, and those would gladly take any jobs of strikers right now.

Re: Eat for $1.50 per Day – Layoffs, Coronavirus Quarantine, Food Shortages

#122

A significant portion of the population will be reduced to poverty, but at least we can keep as many elderly alive as possible.

but at least we can keep as many elderly alive as possible Your information is out of date. Younger adults are large percentage of coronavirus hospitalizations in United States, according to new CDC data White House officials warn millennials they are not immune https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/03/19/younger-adu...

People keep pointing this out without addressing the compositional issue.

The % of people hospitalized within an age rage tells us nothing without the % of that age range infected.

To me, this statistic just means the young & old don't commingle much compared to Italy/China.

Re: Eat for $1.50 per Day – Layoffs, Coronavirus Quarantine, Food Shortages

#123

I left home at 15 and some adults who worked together let me move in with them and be their maid. I paid $150 a month in rent and got $10 a month to live on. I worked out how to live off Milo (a Jamaican malt supplement), Chips Ahoy cookies (1/2 a cookie a day for a treat) and dumpster dived vegetables (mostly cabbages and carrots). I lived like this for years, when I got my first real jobs I made sure to save at lea…

good observations

Re: Eat for $1.50 per Day – Layoffs, Coronavirus Quarantine, Food Shortages

#124

If you have a way of measuring your body fat to a reasonable degree of accuracy, you can ration your food by knowing how much stored body fat your body can convert into energy per day. Your body can convert roughly 0.9% of your body fat into energy in a day. So if you're 180lbs with 33% body fat, you have 60 lbs of fat on you. You should be able to convert ~0.54lbs into energy, which at ~3500 kcal per lbs comes out t…

I've discussed my weight loss hear before, but I want to reiterate that when I was "trying" to lose weight, I only ate one medium/light meal a day. Ran about 2 miles a day (3 by the end) and still only lost 15 lbs in one month of this.

If people are frugal/miserly with their meals and careful starting now, and have long lasting food, we can live a long time.

Side note: After this experience, I've been eating one meal a day for about 2 years now. (I am a desk jockey so I don't need much) I can control my weight, and I eat more if I need it, and less if I don't.

Re: Eat for $1.50 per Day – Layoffs, Coronavirus Quarantine, Food Shortages

#125
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally unemployment insurance does not cover my rent. It’s enough to stretch out savings dramatically, but saving on food budget would then be even more important. Especially if you’re considering cashing in some 401k stocks in a down market.

Renegotiate your rent during the crisis. It's extremely unlikely your landlord is going to be able to rent it to someone new in the foreseeable future. Most landlords are highly leveraged and need income. Make an offer to cut it in half and see if they bite.

I own several rental properties, and I’ve already told my property managers that I’m receptive to rent reductions - less rent still beats an empty property. Any landlord who expects to get through this without a reduction in income is just delusional.

Re: Eat for $1.50 per Day – Layoffs, Coronavirus Quarantine, Food Shortages

#126
post #28

Its worth clarifying that the article is specifically addressing the fallout from the pandemic: Unemployment and poverty due to failing economies and shuttered restaurants and bars. In the US, Despite our country having vast and endless supplies of food from megafarms and their accompanying subsidies, there is very little safety net in America to ensure anyone is fed at all once they are unemployed. worth posting, a…

"In the US, Despite our country having vast and endless supplies of food from megafarms and their accompanying subsidies, there is very little safety net in America to ensure anyone is fed at all once they are unemployed."

This is where a legitimate government worth the trust of the people would say, "Do not worry America, we will feed you," and do whatever it took, including mobilizing the National Guard, to distribute that food surplus to those who need it most.

This is where a competent government would do this in the safest possible manner, including having personal protection equipment, training on how to use it properly and how to practice social distancing while getting the job done.

This is where true leaders would inspire the people to help keep each other safe, healthy, and well fed.

Recall the inspiration, organization and funding that kicked off the Space Race, the Manhattan Project, and the New Deal.

Where is the leader who can say with a straight face that "we do this not because it is easy, but because it is hard"? One that can say and be believed that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself"?

Instead of being inspired to work together on what could be the greatest challenge of this generation we're left to fend for ourselves, left to cower home alone, to hope the scraps we've managed to scrounge will be enough to last us however long it takes for life to return to some semblance of normalcy, for the most destitute of us to face starvation, with a lack of trust in each other, in our leaders, and in society.

Re: Eat for $1.50 per Day – Layoffs, Coronavirus Quarantine, Food Shortages

#127
post #28

Its worth clarifying that the article is specifically addressing the fallout from the pandemic: Unemployment and poverty due to failing economies and shuttered restaurants and bars. In the US, Despite our country having vast and endless supplies of food from megafarms and their accompanying subsidies, there is very little safety net in America to ensure anyone is fed at all once they are unemployed. worth posting, a…

> In the US, Despite our country having vast and endless supplies of food from megafarms and their accompanying subsidies, there is very little safety net in America to ensure anyone is fed at all once they are unemployed.

On the contrary, food stamps (SNAP) is pretty much the only federal welfare program that covers everyone based only on need (i.e. low enough assets and income).

There is a 3-month limit for many people (e.g. able-bodied males who don't have kids) but states have the power to extend it in times/locations of high unemployment.

Re: Eat for $1.50 per Day – Layoffs, Coronavirus Quarantine, Food Shortages

#128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In that case, expensive things won’t be expensive for very long.

This seems like a misunderstanding of how supply and demand acts in the real world. I didn't say people weren't buying premium products at all - they very much so are. They're just not selling out at the insane rate everything else is. If anything this suggests that the inexpensive products would (assuming we were operating an idealised free market, which we're kind of not because stores are now attempting to limit p…

But you realize the reason expensive things are expensive is because there are enough people willing to pay the premium. If demand for premium products diminishes, premium product producers can either lower prices to meet demand at lower price point, or lower production to new lower levels of demand.

Either way there is a present glut of expensive things without enough demand, so existing oversupply is liquidated. So expensive things get less expensive.

Re: Eat for $1.50 per Day – Layoffs, Coronavirus Quarantine, Food Shortages

#129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are shit loads more people in a position where they don't have the money. You probably just encounter more of the type who are frivolous because of where you live and who you interact with. Step outside your neighborhood, your county your state.

I've worked with homelessness and welfare programs in 4 states and 4 countries including Zimbabwe. If you're using the word 'state' in a sentence and aren't a clinically insane or drug addicted homeless person, then FOH. You have such a ridiculously huge leg up in this country and so many resources to buy groceries, get meals and get help. People are in sucky situations. They're hard. They don't deserve it. But excus…

WTF are you even responding to? I'm responding to a person other than you first of all. State as in New Jersey or Ohio, not state of mind. Chill the fuck out. What is the intent of your messaging here?

Re: Eat for $1.50 per Day – Layoffs, Coronavirus Quarantine, Food Shortages

#130

A significant portion of the population will be reduced to poverty, but at least we can keep as many elderly alive as possible.

but at least we can keep as many elderly alive as possible Your information is out of date. Younger adults are large percentage of coronavirus hospitalizations in United States, according to new CDC data White House officials warn millennials they are not immune https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/03/19/younger-adu...

> More than raw numbers, the percent of total cases gives a sense of the risk to different age groups. For instance, just 1.6% to 2.5% of 123 infected people 19 and under were admitted to hospitals; none needed intensive care and none has died… In contrast, no ICU admissions or deaths were reported among people younger than 20.

> In South Korea, for example, which had an early surge of cases, the death rate in Covid-19 patients ages 80 and over was 10.4%, compared to 5.35% in 70-somethings, 1.51% in patients 60 to 69, 0.37% in 50-somethings. Even lower rates were seen in younger people, dropping to zero in those 29 and younger.

"Immune" is not an accurate word but... "almost unaffected" is accurate. These are the most recent numbers. Warning millennials about risks is almost entirely to protect the old, not to protect themselves.

[source] https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/18/coronavirus-new-age-anal...

Post reply on HN