politics
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
view the rest of the comments
Yes. Financially? absolutely. emphatically.
first, I think you missed the part where the pandemic was literally just starting four years ago. the shitstorm was just starting to build in March 2020, the Pandemic wasn't at full stride yet, and the devastating consequences didn't start coming home to roost until the summer. that said:
I managed to keep my jobs. One is a side gig company with about twenty employees I started as a retirment investment. That was growing nice and steadily and controlled before the pandemic. When the pandemic hit, I had to restructure our services to try and protect revenue; I made the decision to continue paying staff regardless of if they had hours or not.... part of that was to protect their healthcare... which, very nearly bankrupted me. I did not get to have PPP loans because I didn't have in-house lawyers that helped write the damn law (aka I and my lawyer had to read the terms and stuff.) and that cash was gone by the time we felt it was reasonable.
We haven't recovered from that. we're out of the woods, but that's a hit to our growth that will set me back three to four years. I feel I did the right thing on many levels, but it wasn't without cost. I don't want a medal or whatever, but I need you to understand that that company is my retirement savings. as far as small businesses, a very large number of them have shuttered and won't be coming back. I was lucky in that I could minimize overhead and get to where I wasn't bleeding money like the Black Knight; but it still wasn't good. I probably lost around a year and a half of growth, and the the pandemic stalled me for another three or four years.
My other job I'm a manager for contract security, our employees are essential; and in that respect, so was I, since it was my job to keep them in uniforms, supplies, current on their training; and make sure we had coverage when people got sick, etc. Another aspect of that job is reviewing new hires before sending them to clients. one of the things we look at is debt. I can tell you first hand credit card debt has gone out of control. but don't take my word for it. Credit card debt has been skyrocketing since ~2021- around the same time significant aid has stopped going out. Evictions are also on the rise and skyrocketed after the moratorium expired. Housing costs are also ridiculous.
Take home wages are still down 3% from four years ago, too, when you adjust from inflation. This means, on top of massive economic hardship, they're spending more just for basic necessities like housing, food, child care; as well as the massive death toll. this means people are saving less, and people that were living pay check to paycheck (which is roughly half of americans.)... they're tappign what savings they had (which, to be blunt wasn't much for most.); while stacking on debt to pay for things like car repairs or medical bills.
So yeah. People are doing worse. much. much worse.