This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
My first, ready response is that flu mitigation measures make a tremendous difference vs. the flu 'running wild'.
There is a a BBQ bar and grill in my neighborhood that is doing a concert in their parking lot. They have the cars parked in every other parking space, and then a local musician is playing on the patio. They have it tied to a channel on your radio so you can listen in your car and watch.
Many restaurants are trying to stay afloat NOW by just doing take-out and delivery. Allowing them to seat a few people in a responsible manner would only help support jobs, right?
I don't think anyone is expecting pre-pandemic numbers for awhile.
That's a very good point and could affect some people's opinions. That being said, doing what's best for everyone shouldn't change based on our personal experiences. If I had a blue-collar job where I made 900 a week and I got unemployment AND the 600/week stipend from the federal govt, AND the bulk payments that should be dropping this week, I'd hope that my opinions would be similar.
It's a lot like no one (around here, anyway) ever said "Close it all down until a vaccine is totally done and ready to go!"
Exactly. They should be getting unemployment PLUS up to 600/week from federal government right? I'd imagine there are some people doing better right now.
We're also not totally closed either. We are doing a lot already while we wait for testing/treatments/vaccine.
It's a start and we're getting somewhere. I'm thankful.
Right so the restaurants would just have less staff working. So the waitstaff, in theory, would have a similar number of table they had pre pandemic it just there are less waitstaff around. Less cooks too. So the ones working could maintain a similar wage to what they had before and the ones not can continue collecting unemployment.
Sorry for the delay in response. PL. How was the Cub in EP?
The small business aid is horrifically bad. A HUGE percentage of them took the loan believing they would qualify for it to be forgiven, but were forced to start the clock the moment they were approved for the loan, and that clock will run out well before they can achieve the requirements of forgiveness. Most of them just took on more debt at a time where they cannot afford to service that debt. It will result in more bankruptcies than it was intended to save.
For large restaurants, sure. There are however a lot of full service restaurants that only have one or two waitstaff needed to run the dining area.
I am curious as to why federal aid like this couldn't have been made "clean and easy" essentially by fiat. I guess our government's structure is not set up for that kind of magic-wand waving, though.
Is this true? The clock doesn't start when they actually receive the funds? I would hope they'd go back and change that since for many businesses it takes weeks to receive the funds. What I don't understand is why aren't fica taxes part of the forgivable amount. It is a mandatory cost of payroll yet that's specifically excluded.
Try getting 50 people around a food truck at a Chicago beach front without being hassled by the cops. The "economy" isn't fully open. Governors can mandate certain actions that close off parts of the economy. They also have the power to "open" the parts of the economy that they've closed. But Pritzker isn't going to stroll up to the podium tomorrow and say 'see yall at B-Dubs at 5pm, first rounds on me".
Just about every piece of anecdotal evidence I have to offer contradicts this stuff. We are so lacking in self awareness as a society people can't fathom how much different things could be and what actual "shutdown" really looks like.
When you have a two party system, one party represents one group of people and the other party represents the other group of people. When you are not part of either group, you are left out and usually screwed by politics.
It's because one a loan is created, it become just a piece of a bigger asset. For example, the bank that issued you your loan and gave you the money, sells your loan so they can then have money to issue another loan. That's their business. Their business is to make loans, not collect on loans. The entity collecting your loan is a loan servicer who also does not own your loan. They collect your loan, keep a little for a service fee, and distribute the money you paid to things like Mortgage Backed Securities, which are owned by pensions, which are serviced by pension mangers. Ultimately the money you pay for your loan goes through all these channels and ends up in your retired neighbor's pension payment. The only way for you to not pay your loan is for your neighbor to not get his pension payment (just an example, and just a nutshell). So unless the ultimate recipient of the loan is willing to let it slide for 3 months, the only other way to get a 3 month pass is for one of the entities in between to take an income hit, and most likely they can't afford it, unless they get a government bailout.... which is actually happening in some cases.
The only way this plan might work is if restaurants decide we are only going to serve 15 tables today total--reserve your 30 minute window, no walk ins.You can't have people congregated around one another like a normal night at Olive Garden waiting for 2 hours for a table--that will be a recipe for disaster. But who in their right mind would say Okay I will be the one server to go to work and take the chance of getting infected, having to pay for daycare, while serving tables and hoping I get a good tip, while my co-workers stay home in safety and collect their unemployment check? Plus you have the whole sanitizing every surface, every plate, and fork after every customer leaves. Then of course when someone catches it, do you honestly believe they won't be in line at the first ambulance chaser attorney's office suing said restaurant for getting them sick? IMO full service restaurants aren't coming back any time soon.
But wasn't the whole mitigation effort and "closing" to simply flatten the curve? So we all don't all get it at once?
But I think you're missing his point. Things ARE going to start opening up again sooner rather than later. Whether you agree with it or not. And frankly, whether it's the correct thing to do or not (Narrator: It's not). So I think it would be helpful if people start thinking more about what that will mean when it does happen instead of just arguing "academically/scientifically" that it should not happen. Or blaming certain political parties or leaders (and I use that last word very reluctantly).
Personally? One thing for us....stay the hell home....we are going nowhere for the next several months and we've cancelled three trips this summer/fall to see family/friends.
When the Fed is printing, and assets such as the stock market and housing prices continue to fall, then we're ####ed. What is happening there is that the forces of deleveraging are so great that even inflation of base money can't counter act it.
I'm not smart nor particularly informed. But I think it means what we can do when out in any public place: masks, gloves, keeping apart from people, hand-washing/sanitizing and being really careful about touching anything, etc. Also each person can do their part by doing this. And definitely not going out to any places with even a case of the sniffles.
Once the loan is approved you have days to accept the funds or the loan gets denied.
Until you wake up thinking you may have slept through an entire season (me last Thursday) or wake up at 6 am, hurry up and run to go lay down on the couch because you vaguely remember your wife saying her stomach hurt when you went to bed and you were alarmed but too drunk to get away at whatever time it was you went to bed (me last.... Friday? Saturday? IDK)... I think you are ok.Funny because... it’s true.
I’ve drained a bottle of wine every day except one since March 9 when we went on lockdown. No more, no less. Start drinking about 3pm and have a glass on average about every other hour. Going to have to put the brakes on, but not quite ready yet.
Exactly! As much as is possible, couldn't the people who feel the way you and many others here do just try to do that? I know it's not perfect, but I think people need to start thinking about what they can do and how they will do it.
I have been accused of giving "the common person" way too much credit. Could be.
Right, but can we MAKE people do that? I mean, I know a Governor or President could, but will they? Will people listen? There will be some people that more or less just go back to their normal way of interacting with people.
Yes, the goal of flattening the curve is to limit the amount of people who need hospitalization. The goal was never to eliminate the amount of people who need hospitalization.
I think societal norms may help dictate that. Social shaming for those being reckless can be a motivator to do the right thing, maybe even more than the law. Not sure.
They must return to a certain percentage of pre-crisis payroll by a certain number of weeks of receiving the loan funds.
A lot of financial talk in here but I have a more medical/scientific question. @gianmarco and other medical folks - I keep hearing this about longer exposure or more exposure. I think I'm like most non-medical folks and look at this like it is binary. I either get COVID or I don't. Are the people who are dying that are younger ones that get extreme exposure or have underlying health issues? More directly, my son still goes to work almost daily at a grocery store so he's exposed by I'm trying to understand our level of risk when he comes home. I get the risk if I go shopping but with him coming home are we basically ok as long as we keep our distance from him? I hate the idea that he has to go out and come home but happy that he's young and healthy and working to help others. I'm just trying to gauge how concerned I should be.
I will emerge from my bunker when the all clear is issued.
Lots of viruses don't have vaccines. HIV, for one, even though there are trials. RSV is a common childhood virus that also doesn't have a vaccine. Those are just 2 examples of many.
Sure...they can and I hope they will. What sucks is the people deciding against the right thing in favor of what they want are going to be putting hospitals and the healthcare community at a greater risk in exchange for their personal desires to be met.
