We live in an odd time. It is not just what is beamed to us by the media, but what is happening in the more mundane areas of life. Drive around the typical business park and the parking lots are empty. Even as the lock down stuff lightens up, people are not returning to work. According to the government, over 40 million people have been furloughed over the last two months. That would explain the empty parking lots, but it does not explain the busy streets. Lots of people are on the roads.
The working theory is that the people laid off from their work are just enjoying the extra benefits from the Federal government. The $600 per week check along with the normal unemployment means they have no disruption in their lifestyle. Covid has been a very long government financed vacation. That's why the parking lots in the business parks are empty, but the streets are busy during the day. It would also explain why we don't have a rush hour in the morning or the evening.
That theory will be tested in August, as the Federal checks are supposed to run out in July, assuming no extension. Another angle here though is the people still working are busier than ever. Despite the massive layoffs, work still goes on and the people not granted the extended holiday are either working from home or back in the offices doing more than they did before the shutdown. It is a real life example of the plot for a science fiction story. The term "working class" now has new meaning.
In my case, I am busier in the day job than ever. So much so that I'm taking next week off from the podcast just to get caught up. The last full day I've taken off was back in April and I'm not sure of the day. You make hay while the sun shines as a small business man, so I have no complaints. It is just another part of the mystery. Forty million out of work, whole swaths of the retail economy closed for months, but the people working are busier than ever. No one seems to notice this either.
Even crazier is we have been told since forever that mass unemployment leads to civil unrest, as people blame the government for the job losses. The civil unrest we are seeing, however, is people who have never worked and never intend to work. They are bums, layabouts and parasites. Their complaint is mostly toward the people who make it possible for them to remain alive. It is always popular to say the world has gone mad, but this time it may be more than a figure of speech.
Regardless, I will be taking a week off from the show. That will give me some time to get caught up on the day job. We are coming up on White People Independence Day, which is always a slow time for the site. In fact, the next two weeks have always been the slowest for traffic and comments. I'm hoping I can get caught up on the day job, so I can then get back on some other projects I have going. This week I cleared out the mail bag and inbox, so I'm clean for another month.
Source: Letters To The Underground | The Z Blog
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