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Its worth clarifying that the article is specifically addressing the fallout from the pandemic: Unemployment and poverty due to failing economies and shuttered

• wormseed 7y ago
  Most Americans live in a state where unemployment benefits is easily enough for food.
  • smnrchrds 7y ago
    Millions of Americans who are gig workers are not be eligible for any unemployment benefits.
  • agentdrtran 7y ago
    what about rent? medical supplies? hygiene items?
    • deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
  • Retric 7y ago
    Personally unemployment insurance does not cover my rent. It’s enough to stretch out savings dramatically, but saving on food budget would then be even more important. Especially if you’re considering cashing in some 401k stocks in a down market.
    • anonuser123456 7y ago
      Renegotiate your rent during the crisis. It's extremely unlikely your landlord is going to be able to rent it to someone new in the foreseeable future. Most landlords are highly leveraged and need income. Make an offer to cut it in half and see if they bite.
      • repiret 7y ago
        I own several rental properties, and I’ve already told my property managers that I’m receptive to rent reductions - less rent still beats an empty property. Any landlord who expects to get through this without a reduction in income is just delusional.
        • shiftpgdn 7y ago
          I know an absolute ton of small businesses owners. Every single one of them has tried to renegotiate or get forbearance on rent this week. They have had 0% success and the only response is really that rent is due on the first. There will be a massive commercial real estate crisis soon.
          • repiret 7y ago
            I don’t know what it is, but it seems commercial landlords would rather have an empty property than accept market rent in a down market. I saw a lot of that in the last recession. I suspect that the managers of REITs and partnerships that own most commercial property worry that accepting lower rent would make it harder for them to delude their investors into thinking their property values haven’t tanked. “We appraise this property based on a rental income of $5k/mo, it’s just between tenants right now”
            • jlokier 7y ago
              I think it's sometimes because they see the value of future higher rent after a void is worth more, in straight up cash value, than accepting lower rent with a long term commitment. I've seen it for years: Empty shop buildings, a glut of local businesses wanting to rent them, but they are kept empty until some chain willing to pay double turns up a year later. For the landlord, it's worth waiting if that will be the outcome.
  • PaulDavisThe1st 7y ago
    any self-employed person who sees a dramatic reduction in income (perhaps even 100%) is also (AFAIK) not eligible for unemployment benefits.
• pmoriarty 7y ago
  "In the US, Despite our country having vast and endless supplies of food from megafarms and their accompanying subsidies, there is very little safety net in America to ensure anyone is fed at all once they are unemployed." This is where a legitimate government worth the trust of the people would say, "Do not worry America, we will feed you," and do whatever it took, including mobilizing the National Guard, to distribute that food surplus to those who need it most. This is where a competent government would do this in the safest possible manner, including having personal protection equipment, training on how to use it properly and how to practice social distancing while getting the job done. This is where true leaders would inspire the people to help keep each other safe, healthy, and well fed. Recall the inspiration, organization and funding that kicked off the Space Race, the Manhattan Project, and the New Deal. Where is the leader who can say with a straight face that "we do this not because it is easy, but because it is hard"? One that can say and be believed that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself"? Instead of being inspired to work together on what could be the greatest challenge of this generation we're left to fend for ourselves, left to cower home alone, to hope the scraps we've managed to scrounge will be enough to last us however long it takes for life to return to some semblance of normalcy, for the most destitute of us to face starvation, with a lack of trust in each other, in our leaders, and in society.
  • stellar678 7y ago
    California literally has the National Guard supporting food banks across the state right now: https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/03/21/coronavirus-governor-orders-state-national-guard-to-help-california-food-banks/ https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/03/21/coronavirus-governor-... I agree with your overall sentiment that we would benefit right now from inspirational leadership with strong messages of solidarity. But at the same time, it's not all doom and gloom. There's a lot of good happening as well.
    • _bxg1 7y ago
      California is and always has been an outlier when it comes to using government resources to help and protect people.
• unishark 7y ago
  > In the US, Despite our country having vast and endless supplies of food from megafarms and their accompanying subsidies, there is very little safety net in America to ensure anyone is fed at all once they are unemployed. On the contrary, food stamps (SNAP) is pretty much the only federal welfare program that covers everyone based only on need (i.e. low enough assets and income). There is a 3-month limit for many people (e.g. able-bodied males who don't have kids) but states have the power to extend it in times/locations of high unemployment.
  • justin66 7y ago
    > states have the power to extend it in times/locations of high unemployment The federal government under Trump took some of this ability away in December, with changes targeted to take effect April 1st. The plan was that roughly 700,000 people would lose the ability to receive food stamps in order to, according to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, "restore the dignity of work to a sizable segment of our population." I wish I was making that up. Today, the unemployment rate is likely to spike so high just about everywhere that the new rules will probably not make a difference, but it's important to keep in mind that there's a portion of the US body politic that is happy to see some people go hungry, as long as it's the right people.
  • bruceb 7y ago
    (e.g. able-bodied males who don't have kids) I doubt it is gender specific. that being said a better safety net is needed. A savings account started in high school would be nice as well.
• samsonradu 7y ago
  Can’t help seeing the irony of the US being bankrupt by an ilness - someone on Twitter
  • tyrust 7y ago
    It's not really ironic on either side. The US is well aware of its healthcare issues. The damage from the pandemic will not be due to a failing healthcare system, but the fallout from much of the economy hitting the pause button for weeks if not months.
• treerock 7y ago
  I'm curious if anyone has numbers on how much a homemade sourdough loaf costs on average. My experience is that flour is quite expensive (and currently not available in UK shops). I've also noticed a spike in electricity costs since we've started baking regularly. (Difficult to calculate exactly) My guess is that baking your own is a bit cheaper than going to some artisanal baker, but a lot more expensive than a standard load.
  • ghaff 7y ago
    I'm pretty sure you would be correct. The cost (assuming you have at least a minimal amount of equipment--including an oven obviously) is basically the flour (which, as you say, can be hard to find right now). A 5 pound bag of flour is normally around $4-$5 in the US, and a large boule (5 cups of flour) takes about 600 grams (~1.5 pounds) of flour, so maybe $1.50. The other ingredients in a basic loaf are negligible and the electricity is about 30 cents at a typical US price (ballpark of 10 cents per KWh). Call it about $2 all together. So, yes, less than an artisanal loaf but maybe a bit more than cheap supermarket bread (though that's a larger loaf as well.)
    • rebuilder 7y ago
      Is this some kind of specialist flour? 1 USD per pound seems high.
      • ghaff 7y ago
        King Arthur flour (one of the big national brands) at Walmart in 5 pound bags. They probably have their own brand which is cheaper.
        • maxerickson 7y ago
          Great Value flour here lists for ~$0.22 a pound in a 5 pound bag. Website says they are out of stock though. (Great Value is the Walmart store brand)
        • 0xffff2 7y ago
• DoreenMichele 7y ago
  there is very little safety net in America to ensure anyone is fed at all once they are unemployed. Everything I have read and experienced suggests this is not true. You may be unaware of it if you have never been desperately poor. A lot of the food aid available to the poor in the US is handled very quietly because it's done by local organizations trying to take care of the local people who actively want to avoid letting predatory vagabonds know where they can get a free handout. I have read in the past that America would look a lot better on paper if we counted emergency food stores as part of our assets in the same way European countries typically do. Decades ago, I read about a study that indicated that only one half one percent of Americans qualified as "poor" by the standards of people in India when based on metrics like food access. I have read that most housed Americans get three meals a day and most homeless Americans only get two meals a day. There are places in the world where two meals a day would be pretty good food security. I'm sure we are facing some very real challenges. I'm not convinced that America is as precariously positioned as some people seem to think. I see comments in this discussion indicating that people who have known serious privation are fairly unperturbed. I think the people freaking out are mostly comfortably well off who think giving up a few comforts is a nightmare scenario. I'm all for actively promoting information for how to feed yourself cheaply while we actively forbid a lot of people from going to work. Cooking from scratch is a terrific way to both save money and give yourself something constructive to do so you aren't going stir crazy and heading for going postal. But there are many Preppers in this country who already had a year or more of stored food and the things I'm hearing suggest hoarding is being done in a bizarre pattern that suggests a lot of upper class emotional BS is going on. According to the research in Diet for a Small Planet, at the time the book was written, every country had the means to feed their people. Famine was due to political and social forces, not due to absolute lack of food supplies. More recently, I have read of cases where food aid sat on the docks rotting because the whole reason people were starving was due to civil war. The food aid was de facto intended to feed people who were more or less being intentionally starved out and the people in power absolutely weren't going to give them free food from other countries. Venezuela was in a real world of hurt before covid19. They were hunting wild donkeys and breaking into zoos to steal the animals from zoos. They are going to see terrible problems. The US doesn't have to. We need to figure out what works so we can avoid unnecessary hardship. A lot of people are working on it. We aren't just sitting here idly waiting for the four horsemen of the apocalypse to show up.
• ohiovr 7y ago
  USDA is active in the state of Ohio. If you have your ear to the ground you can find when they start giving stuff away. Sometimes you can find it on church builtins or job and family services. Sometimes no proof of income is required. The USDA spring and summer give aways usually have a sign up for a year and that's all.
• demian00 7y ago
  since you seem to be from Germany, do you now a good recipe of a Genetztes (Bauernbrot)?