Signs the economy is bad: October 2, 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.


Once more, it is Friday, and it is a new month. My four readers know it is time once again to see how bad the economy is doing. This week it is mostly miscellaneous news, but we do have some interesting individual things also, so let's get on with it.

Rural News

• Out in rural Nebraska, food insecurity is getting worse due to the pandemic. Story via NPR.
  

 

Meanwhile back in the US colony

• There is some serious gentrification going on in Rincón, Puerto Rico. Story via Latino Rebels. To be honest, I have heard the theory before that overall the U.S. plan is to gentrify the island so as to make it unaffordable to the locals, then turn it into a rich white people playground. This story just seems to exemplify that.

 

The Bad Economy  Around the World

• There are more than six million unemployed in Peru due to the pandemic. Story via Telesur.
• In Ireland, 114,00 or so jobs in hospitality are at risk. The hope is the government stepping in to help. Story via Spirits Business.
  

In Other News of the Bad Economy

•  Parents who have lost jobs in the pandemic are struggling also with child care. Story via NPR. Can the U.S. help these people? Probably. Will it choose to do so? Signs point to no. 
• Food insecurity in the United States is getting worse, and NPR has a look at the numbers. 
• A recent survey in Arkansas finds that any gains from declines in poverty are lost now due to the pandemic. Story via Public News Service. 
• Meanwhile in the leisure and hospitality industries: 
• Disney is laying off 28,000 or so workers from its park in California. Story via Al Jazeera.
• NPR reports on other layoffs in the hospitality industry where the workers are losing what little job security they thought they had. 
• Movie theaters are reducing hours or just flat out closing for days at a time due to the bad economy and the pandemic. Story via JoBlo. This is one that I have a hard time having sympathy. Movie theaters have pretty much become obnoxious places where people are allowed to behave like animals in a living room, so to be honest, if they all went bankrupt tomorrow and closed permanently I would not shed a tear. I gave up going to movie theaters years ago because of that bullshit they casually allow. COVID is not making me anymore sympathetic. Just put the movies on some films on demand model and put them out of their misery. 
•  Another bunch of motherfuckers I have little sympathy for is publishers, who again are whining that libraries are taking sales from them, story via Publishers Weekly, this time e-books. One, libraries do buy their merchandise, and for e-books it is often highly overpriced because of said whining (no, we cannot buy e-books for 99 cents from Amazon like regular people do; publishers basically gouge libraries on price then have the gall to bitch when we still buy their stuff and lend it as libraries do), and two, they conveniently forget that library users are often their best customers. 
• The approach of the winter season is not good for small businesses. Story via Al Jazeera. The big deal in the U.S. is that many small businesses like mom and pop restaurants, music teachers, and others could do things like outside seating to keep business going. With winter approaching, outside seating option is lost. 
• If you gringo thought you had it bad, consider yourself lucky if you can still go see a doctor if you get sick, or heaven forbid, get COVID-19. Mexican migrants in the U.S. often cannot afford to see a doctor (or they may not be willing to do so out of fear), so they are turning to home remedies to treat COVID-19 symptoms. Story via Telesur.
• Via The OASG, an interesting piece predicting that the 2020 holiday shopping season is going to be very unusual. For instance, Halloween candy came out much earlier, and Black Friday may not quite be the same. As the old saying goes, we live in interesting times.
  

 

Uber Rich

•  The Pendejo In Chief has had a rough week between the revelation that he is basically a tax cheat (or at least a very unethical tax avoider) and the clusterfuck of the debate thingie this past week. Have you ever wondered how a guy who has declared bankruptcy multiple times and is in debt up to his eyeballs manages to still be wealthy? Well, Al Jazeera has an explainer article detailing how his tax stunts do not change his billionaire status. By the way, Trump is not the only billionaire who does this sort of thing. 
• Being affluent does not mean you could not go hungry as people in rich Bethesda, Maryland are facing serious food security issues. Story via NPR. Yea, those wealthy people driving the fancy cars are having to drive over to the food banks. 
• On the other hand, if you have some money to burn, you could consider investing in your own whiskey collection (story via Maxim), or if you want a pre-made collection, the largest private whiskey collection is about to go on auction, and it could fetch up to $5 million (story via Spirits Business). Meanwhile, I will be over here sipping my cheap whiskey.