Signs the economy is bad: July 31, 2020 edition

Welcome to another edition of "Signs the Economy is Bad" here at The Itinerant Librarian. This is the semi-regular (as in when I have time and/or feel like doing it) feature where I scour the Internet in search of the oh so subtle hints that the economy is bad. Sure, pundits may say things are getting better, but what do they know? And to show not all is bad, once in a while we look at how good the uber rich have it.


Welcome to another edition. This week I found a good amount of miscellaneous news, so let's have a look. 

Education News

•  In what can only be described as some serious classist and possibly racist fuckery, a new survey reveals broad differences in remote teaching for low income children versus high income children. Via Hechinger Report. In a nutshell: "Instead of hours per day, the survey revealed that it was how students were being taught that clearly varied by income. Low-income schools spent considerably more time reviewing old content. Wealthier schools were more likely to teach new material. " And that is not all. 
• Meanwhile, college towns, which depend on college students for a lot of their economy despite bitching about college students, are having to adapt and make do with less students (or none if a college completely shut down for the fall). Story via Inc.

Rural News

•  In West Virginia, a new report finds that due to tight town budgets and summer activities closing down due to COVID-19 that more children are eating poorly. Furthermore, "According to Save the Children, one in five children in West Virginia are food insecure, Knisely reports." Story via The Rural Blog

Meanwhile back in the US colony

• Back in Puerto Rico, thousands are STILL without housing since Hurricane Maria. Via Latino Rebels. For the record, it has been almost three years since Hurricane Maria hit the island. How bad is it? The recently appointed local housing secretary admits, “We’re not going to be finished for years."

In Other News of the Bad Economy

•  As if children going hungry due to the pandemic and closures was not bad enough, stress over child care is also causing problems for parents. Story via UPI. In sum, ""The pandemic exposes how fractured the safety net is for American families." Not that the Party of Stupid and their current leader would care about something like that. 
• The Atlantic reports that more people are postponing marriage due to the pandemic. It is just not economically viable for many. 
• At home cooking is messing up U.S. farms. Story via Boing Boing. You would think that cooking at home would be a good and desirable thing. People eat at home, make their own meals, perhaps eat healthier even. The issue is that many farms are geared to sell their produce to restaurants and food service. When restaurants and food service closed down due to the pandemic, they could not easily switch gears to cater to at home cooks. When you think about it, that is a bit of a sad comment about U.S. farming as well as consumers. 
• After Walmart announced it is not opening for Thanksgiving this year, due to the pandemic, a few other retailers are following. Story via Inc. Let's be honest, aside from the fact that they are extending sales longer and sooner than Black Friday is to get people to keep on shopping. They will get people's money one way or another. 
• In culture and the bad economy because, who needs culture anyhow in the United States?
• NPR reports on a new survey showing that 1/3 of museums in the U.S. may not survive the pandemic. 
• Publishers Weekly reports that bookstore sales in May went further down.
• In rural towns, may be harder to see the local production of Little Orphan Annie or whatever as community theaters are struggling to survive in the pandemic. Via The Daily Yonder. We have a small community theater here that to be honest I have no idea if it will survive the pandemic or not. 
• In a different track, read via Latino Rebels how Mexican remittances, the money Mexican immigrants here in the U.S. send back home to Mexico, are also affected by the pandemic. The problem is that they are sending less money back home, but that is not the only issue, so check the story out. 
• This is not so much a bad sign, though it could be, as it is something I found interesting. Hard seltzer sales are going up and up. Story via Spirits Business. There is a desire among some folks for low alcohol proof drinks, and these hard seltzers seem to do the trick.

Uber Rich

• Jeff Bezos has the gall to claim that he has no idea how often or how bad his company Amazon rips off third party sellers. Via VICE. I think we need to make a clear distinction here. It is not that he does not know. It is that he does not want to know since he still profits from it. Big difference.