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U.S. Economy Shrinks at 4.8% Pace, Signaling Start of Recession

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Re: U.S. Economy Shrinks at 4.8% Pace, Signaling Start of Recession

#711

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If people who shouldn't have political power gain it by listening to the neglected, the proper course of action isn't to denigrate the people. He didn't get it by listening to the neglected. He got it by spending money. The protests in my city, like in most places, were primarily people saying "I want people to work for me!" and not "I want to work!". Also had some confederate flags thrown in, because why not. > Ta…

If I were to listen, If you were to listen. I would hear that people don't want to be forced to choose between survival and health. Losing your home, losing the ability to pay for healthcare, perhaps losing custody of your children or losing your already strained marriage -- these are all serious issues which may greatly impact the survival and health of many people. One thing which tone-deafness is often a symptom o…

> Losing your home, losing the ability to pay for healthcare, perhaps losing custody of your children or losing your already strained marriage -- these are all serious issues which may greatly impact the survival and health of many people.

Absolutely. And nobody wants to be forced to pick between that, and the very real possibility of getting sick. But if the states just open up, that's the position that they will be in—work and maybe get sick, or not work, and lose your home, the ability to pay for healthcare, perhaps losing custody of your children or losing your already strained marriage.

Keeping the states closed is a popular position.

> One thing which tone-deafness is often a symptom of, is that one has lost a bit of the capacity to think of certain others as full, equal in worth, human beings. I know this from first hand experience.

It's an honest shame that people with your attitude weren't the ones running the protests, instead of people flying the confederate flag and wanting to get their hair done.

Re: U.S. Economy Shrinks at 4.8% Pace, Signaling Start of Recession

#712
post #504

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The folks participating in the protest are not at all lower on the socioeconomic latter, but predominately middle class. Black Americans, who tend to be poorer and less secure, support the lockdown at a higher rate than whites or other racial groups [0] (at least in Florida). Whites have the least support for a lockdown, but most still oppose reopening. Lastly, at least some of the protests were funded by the DeVos f…

Fact that US still have to break down so much into racial cohorts in polls is weird. And offer nothing of value other than the generalizations like "who tend to be poorer" that doesn't help the discussion nor analysis. What do you do with this information in this context? How about breaking down by religion or something else that at least points to what kind of media/message the group is more exposed to? or something…

Due to the history of the US, race is highly determinate to culture and socioeconomic status. It's a very good proxy for to cut across all sorts of differences. For example, you mentioned home owners. Guess which race has very few of those?

I would have preferred to see a poll based on income, but race is still a decent proxy for that.

Re: U.S. Economy Shrinks at 4.8% Pace, Signaling Start of Recession

#713
post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And this post is why I get so infuriated when I see all the blue-checkmarks on Twitter, calling people who want to go back to work "Selfish, stupid, idiot, etc". People don't want lockdown to stop because they need to go to their hairdresser, or because they need to go hangout at the pub, or whatever idiotic reason these privilege a-holes put in their tweets. People want to get back to work , because they need money…

blaming "Blue Checkmarks" for the fact that people are being victimized by capitalism during a pandemic makes me sick to my stomach. What a hopeless year this has been.

I totally agree with you. In the richest country in human histroy, people shouldn't be forced to live paycheck to paycheck.

Re: U.S. Economy Shrinks at 4.8% Pace, Signaling Start of Recession

#714

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Printing money hasn't caused inflation since world war 1 and that's because the demand for USD is virtually unlimited. As long as the money printed comes back to the government as taxes, it's not an issue. Else it becomes a deficit. This was already theorized by modern money mechanics and this incident is proving it right

I saw the 1970s. We had 14% inflation. That came from somewhere.

It came from oil prices which had surge in pieces

Re: U.S. Economy Shrinks at 4.8% Pace, Signaling Start of Recession

#715
post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No school means poor kids roam the street like packs of feral dogs asking for money for food around here. I think this is possibly the single biggest long term problem we're going to face as a result of all this. Economic recessions will come and go. But missing 5/8ths of a school year is going to be absolutely devastating for this generation of kids. They will be left permanently behind without a serious concerted…

> Missing 5/8ths of a school year is going to be absolutely devastating for this generation of kids. Which subject can they study at school that they cannot study at home?

English & Language Arts, including writing. Even for competent parents, unless you fully understand the curriculum and know how to teach it, providing direct instruction or enabling self-teaching in these areas is FAR harder than for math & science ... until you get into lab sciences where access to materials becomes problematic.

Re: U.S. Economy Shrinks at 4.8% Pace, Signaling Start of Recession

#716
post #664

It's pretty insane that the S&P500 is higher than it was during October last year, hell even something like 7% higher than it was last year May. There was a post on reddit joking about a guy going into a coma last year after having purchased a share of an S&P500 ETF, waking up today and hearing the news of a global pandemic, people were told to quarantine at home for more than a month, a quarter million people died,…

This could also just be a 'bull-trap', and the major stock indices could collapse soon. There was a major bull-trap at the beginning of the great depression.

I believe it was 6 months long, too...

Re: U.S. Economy Shrinks at 4.8% Pace, Signaling Start of Recession

#717
post #455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>My question is how much, if any, social unrest this will lead to. The only social unrest that has happened so far have been the protests about wanting to lift or ease restrictions on states, and they were widely panned as a bunch of nutjobs. I doubt there will be any "unrest" beyond the protests.

The only social unrest that has happened so far have been the protests about wanting to lift or ease restrictions on states, and they were widely panned as a bunch of nutjobs. It's easy to look down on people lower on the socioeconomic ladder. They're still human beings. They've been given this raw deal: For the greater good, you will now give up your job for an indefinite period of time, with no prospect of finding…

Those protester people were to a large extent rich employers who wanted to start earning on the backs of others again, or benefiting from that work with normal service availability. There isn't a lot of rawness in that deal, only privilege, and their request was one that hurts others to maintain that privilege.

Re: U.S. Economy Shrinks at 4.8% Pace, Signaling Start of Recession

#718

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The essential motivation for people to want to feed their families/pay bills is completely logical, but it's important to keep in perspective that the virus doesn't care about any of these things. We don't need to look too far back in history to see that ending isolation in a pandemic too early can have huge consequences (much bigger than an economic slowdown/unemployment).

One piece of anecdotal evidence: I live in NYC but currently reside in rural upstate NY. We have very few cases up here and it's impossible to NOT socially distance because that the way of life up here. As of last week, Cuomo is applying the same rules in NYC to all of NY state, which is ridiculous. My family friend has a furniture factory up here that employs 220 people with a backlog of $2M+ pieces worth of furnitu…

*The same rules that apply to NYC SHOULDN'T apply to other areas.

Re: U.S. Economy Shrinks at 4.8% Pace, Signaling Start of Recession

#719
post #98

This is anecdotal and it might come across as bitter and tonedeaf as someone who is not in a STEM job and cant see the bigger picture very well. Im a diesel engine tech who repairs those big trucks carrying food and shit tickets to grocery stores. the fact that ANY market is completely detached from whats actually happening to Americans is frustrating. My job just cut benefits and hours but we're "essential." Remembe…

> No school means poor kids roam the streets like packs of feral dogs asking for money for food around here.

You don’t think that describing poor kids who cannot go to school and likely cannot afford to eat on their own as packs of feral dogs is problematic at all?

Re: U.S. Economy Shrinks at 4.8% Pace, Signaling Start of Recession

#720

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and the richest 10% of americans own 84% of all stock. The top 20% of earners also handle close to 90% of the tax burden, while close to 50% of the population pay nothing in taxes.

That's because the top has looted the economy, leaving little or nothing for the rest of us. Its not a reflection on the bottom 50% at all.

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