Clamoring for Relief

As Covid-19 ravages the world economy, every body from small business to big companies and individuals are clamoring for some relief from their governments. And governments are obliging in ways never seen before throwing in trillions of dollars haphazardly without any oversight which has resulted in some under serving business getting billions in loans and aid while leaving out small business who really need them to get thru this Virus induced recession (or call it depression). The unemployment rate in the United States alone has surpassed 30 million with more than 12 million still unable to log into their states’s unemployment websites to register according to some reports. Some well known big business and retail giants may not come out of this situation in one piece and maybe become much smaller in order to survive, which in essence means that more people will be unemployed long term. I have been reading articles about the impact of this virus on people of all walks of life and it is frightening how ill prepared and financially stressed out people are in the United States at least where I live.

With demand completely zapped out and people under strict lockdown and non essential business all but shut down, people who were already living paycheck to paycheck are now in a survival mode and that includes all kinds of businesses. Hairdressers and salon the most close contact people are completely shut down and down know how they will be able to open up. Travel industry is completely shut with airlines, hotels and theme parks closed since they are also the places where large and close contact congregations can breed the virus. Sports arenas and restaurants are done with as they are also in the customer service business and nobody is going to them anymore. Besides with 30 million and counting people

Out of jobs, people are more worried about have a roof on their heads and food on the table, nobody is not in the mood or have the financial capacity and being afraid of catching the virus, all the discretionary spending is at a standstill. All people are suffering now and even if the supply is there, people are afraid to spend since many people have lost their jobs or are afraid to lose their jobs and are not spending. Despite the U.S. government spending trillions of dollars to shore up the economy and help common folks navigate thru this terrible disease, still unless the economy opens up soon, all these efforts will not help revive peoples’ fortune. For this to happen, it will be better despite the spread of virus, to open up the economy slowly since nobody knows how long the vaccine going to take for this virus.  Right now all categories of people and businesses are clamoring for some kind of relief like in rent and mortgage and car payments but how long will the relief be given is a question nobody knows since the jobs are not there anymore and people need jobs to pay their bills. Hopefully the next few weeks, we will see a clearer picture of how the economy is doing and if we the people will be able to overcome the fear of catching this virus and start to accept it as a new normal.