7 ms·

Millions of Americans can't afford food, rent and other basics, report finds

86 points by hhs 7y ago

aaron-lebo 7y ago
Goes without saying, but it is shocking how quickly the world has changed. The easy take would be that a lot of people are finding out how the other half lives, without easy access to healthcare or using credit cards to pay bills, but the poorer are disproportionately affected. The only positive, if there is one, is the ability to really consider how our societies operate, how dangerous apathy and incompetence are and for tech workers more specifically, to realize how much of an impact our work has. The next time someone wants to act like they know what the future looks like, remind them to have some humility. Be safe yall. This too shall pass.
- cactus2093 7y ago
  Sorry but I can't help but remark on the contradiction in your last paragraph... Nobody knows for sure what the future will look like, but don't worry, you know that this too shall pass and things will go back to normal. Just reminding you to have some humility.
  - iamthirsty 7y ago
    > you know that this too shall pass and things will go back to normal. No, we don't. Who knows if this coronavirus will ever truly go away? What will the new "normal" be like when—if—things truly settle down. Surely our world will be forever marked by this event.
    - raidicy 7y ago
      I wonder if people in 1918 thought the same thing. And then the only impact the Spanish flu had on me was it was mentioned in passing in outdated middle school "social studies" books.
      - BrainlingPdx 7y ago
        That's not true at all. The Spanish flu outbreak had a ton of impact on the modern world. Health codes, science around vaccines, economic effects, etc. To act like the Spanish flu had no long lasting effects shows you didn't pay much attention in middle school social studies.
        pstuart 7y ago
        No need to be rude. You had a point and then sullied it.
        raidicy 7y ago
        I didn't. But it doesn't mean the books did it justice either. Anyway, I was trying to illustrate GP's point of getting back to normalcy, albeit vaguely.
      - deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
    - Hoasi 7y ago
      > Surely our world will be forever marked by this event. Yes, it will leave a mark during our lifetime, but that doesn't mean forever. People quickly forget about terrible events, which is a blessing and a curse. Nobody remembers that much about the Spanish flu, and yet it was one of the deadliest pandemics known to mankind. This pandemic is dramatic and unprecedented in our lifetime, yet nobody can tell how that will affect us in the long term. There are vested interests to come back to normal as fast as possible. And there are also incentives to use this crisis to push all kinds of agendas. I'd be wary about predictions.
      - umanwizard 7y ago
        Some events permanently change the course of history, forever. Like the second world war, or the European discovery of America.
    - __blockcipher__ 7y ago
      > Who knows if this coronavirus will ever truly go away? Wait, what? I keep hearing this notion floated around and I'm honestly very confused. Are people under the impression that our lockdowns are going to eradicate this? Or are you using "going away" as a metaphor for "will recede to the background level of death from flu/etc that we have learned to tune out?" It should be stunningly obvious that a highly infectious respiratory disease that is present in every country, originally came from animals and has shown the ability to infect other animals will never be eradicated. There's too many reservoirs, even if the totalitarian dream that everyone seems to want were a full reality. If you meant the other sense, then it should be equally obvious that this will eventually pass through the population and we will build immunity to it, at which point Covid-19 joins the friendly cast of characters such as the common cold coronaviruses, common cold rhinoviruses, adenoviruses, influenza, etc. In short, a disease that kills people but not in numbers that we freak out about. (And incidentally once the globe has been exposed to it it should be much less deadly than Influenza since new humans will be exposed to it as babies/young children and not as 80+ year old nursing home patients, and Covid simply does not kill young children in significant numbers) What's that? Do I hear the "There's no evidence for immunity to covid-19" crowd in the distance? I'm getting a bit tired of that line, but if someone wants me to dismantle that argument (again) I am happy to.
      - xkapastel 7y ago
        > It should be stunningly obvious > it should be equally obvious Clearly it is not obvious, considering most people have never spent a significant amount of time thinking about how infectious diseases work. > What's that? Do I hear the "There's no evidence for immunity to covid-19" crowd in the distance? I'm getting a bit tired of that line, but if someone wants me to dismantle that argument (again) I am happy to. Why make a snarky, coy comment like this? If you have something to say about immunity then just say it. In fact the WHO are among those who make this claim[0], so "dismantle" away. [0]: https://www.who.int/news-room/commentaries/detail/immunity-passports-in-the-context-of-covid-19 https://www.who.int/news-room/commentaries/detail/immunity-p...
        __blockcipher__ 7y ago
- RhysU 7y ago
  > The easy take would be that a lot of people are finding out how the other half lives... ...and that the market has already priced in the uncertainty. So long as the expected value improves, the markets can weather a long tail of suffering absent political upheaval that might change the game. The media has spent years trumpeting that things are broken and precarious. That many folks cannot pay their mobile phone bills or cable bills or credit card bills at the first hint of a downturn is not news.
sproketboy 7y ago
250 Million will starve to death unless we get the economy back up. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/30/world/asia/coronavirus-india-lockdown.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/30/world/asia/coronavirus-in... But who cares right?
lobbyingWins 7y ago
Can't afford food? Between food stamps and eating for $1.50/day (source- https://efficiencyiseverything.com/eat-for-1-50-per-day-layoffs-coronavirus-quarantine-food-shortages/ https://efficiencyiseverything.com/eat-for-1-50-per-day-layo...) I don't think the problem is the cost of food. Rent, sure. Health insurance, sure. Food? Not the major expense, especially with food stamps.
- chongli 7y ago
  A lot of people live in so-called "food deserts" [1]. That means they don't have access to fresh produce or bulk ingredients like milk, flour, eggs, beans, rice, pasta, or potatoes. Instead, they're stuck with convenience store food which is mostly junk food. If they wanted to buy healthier food they'd have to travel a long way to reach a grocery store, a problem greatly exacerbated for those who do not own a car. It's not easy to carry home 10lbs of potatoes and 10lbs of beans by public transit, let alone on foot. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_desert https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_desert
  - lostmsu 7y ago
    They define "food desert" as 10 mile distance. I don't know how many of those 23 mil. don't have any means of transportation, but most probably do, in which cases 10 mile is just 10-20 minutes of driving away.
    - cultofmetatron 7y ago
      by comparison, I'm in greece and no matter where I go in this city, there's always little shops with fresh vegetable ad fruit withing a 5 minute walk tops
    - wbronitsky 7y ago
      People are going hungry because they live in food deserts. The GP has proved this and you dismiss it. Why would people make this argument if people weren’t actually going hungry?
    - 7y ago
roenxi 7y ago
I suspect shutting down such broad swathes of the economy is unprecedented even in wartime. Nobody has any idea what we are toying with here or what happens next. It wouldn't be surprising if everything worked out well, and it isn't unthinkable that this ushers in the worst decade of chaos and suffering in the last 200 years. The economy is the most complicated machine we have and nobody knows what it is doing right now.
- MiroF 7y ago
  > worst decade of chaos and suffering in the last 200 years Where in the world do you all come up with these statements?
  - reminddit 7y ago
    that adds to sensational phrases msm uses
  - umanwizard 7y ago
    The point was that we don’t have any clue whatsoever what will happen because this has never been done before in human history.
    - FuckButtons 7y ago
      No, we don’t, but that uncertainty doesn’t mean that it’s definitely an unprecedented calamity. This is not good, but how not good is yet to be seen and anyone who claims to know how things will shake out is lying or fooling themselves.
      - jobigoud 7y ago
        Nobody claimed anything, they said it was "not unthinkable".
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- 7y ago
nimbius 7y ago
Im sure someone on HN has explained this before, but why are the markets steady and rebounding when the actual state of the US economy is so dire?? I've been waiting on that promised $1200 check for 2 days shy of an entire month now, and every day that passes I see another bar or clothing store or furniture outlet with boards up on the windows.
- olivermarks 7y ago
  https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/nomura-only-machines-are-buying-stocks-humans-stay-home https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/nomura-only-machines-are-b...
- karlshea 7y ago
  > why are the markets steady and rebounding when the actual state of the US economy is so dire? Because everything anyone involved in the markets has ever told you is a complete lie.
  - dang 7y ago
    Maybe so, but please don't post unsubstantive comments here.
    - karlshea 7y ago
      What, exactly, was unsubstantive about that comment? I'm flabbergasted that after what the market has done in the last couple of months, especially given the OP, that anyone is under the impression investors have any idea what they're doing. Please, everyone tell me some more about it all being "priced in."
      - bathtub365 7y ago
        Not to speak for dang, but such a broad and potentially inflammatory assertion typically warrants references or at least some elaboration on how you came to that position
  - 7y ago

86 points by hhs 7y ago

Goes without saying, but it is shocking how quickly the world has changed. The easy take would be that a lot of people are finding out how the other half lives, without easy access to healthcare or using credit cards to pay bills, but the poorer are disproportionately affected. The only positive, if there is one, is the ability to really consider how our societies operate, how dangerous apathy and incompetence are and for tech workers more specifically, to realize how much of an impact our work has. The next time someone wants to act like they know what the future looks like, remind them to have some humility. Be safe yall. This too shall pass.

cactus2093 7y ago
Sorry but I can't help but remark on the contradiction in your last paragraph... Nobody knows for sure what the future will look like, but don't worry, you know that this too shall pass and things will go back to normal. Just reminding you to have some humility.
- iamthirsty 7y ago
  > you know that this too shall pass and things will go back to normal. No, we don't. Who knows if this coronavirus will ever truly go away? What will the new "normal" be like when—if—things truly settle down. Surely our world will be forever marked by this event.
  - raidicy 7y ago
    I wonder if people in 1918 thought the same thing. And then the only impact the Spanish flu had on me was it was mentioned in passing in outdated middle school "social studies" books.
    - BrainlingPdx 7y ago
      That's not true at all. The Spanish flu outbreak had a ton of impact on the modern world. Health codes, science around vaccines, economic effects, etc. To act like the Spanish flu had no long lasting effects shows you didn't pay much attention in middle school social studies.
      - pstuart 7y ago
        No need to be rude. You had a point and then sullied it.
      - raidicy 7y ago
        I didn't. But it doesn't mean the books did it justice either. Anyway, I was trying to illustrate GP's point of getting back to normalcy, albeit vaguely.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
  - Hoasi 7y ago
    > Surely our world will be forever marked by this event. Yes, it will leave a mark during our lifetime, but that doesn't mean forever. People quickly forget about terrible events, which is a blessing and a curse. Nobody remembers that much about the Spanish flu, and yet it was one of the deadliest pandemics known to mankind. This pandemic is dramatic and unprecedented in our lifetime, yet nobody can tell how that will affect us in the long term. There are vested interests to come back to normal as fast as possible. And there are also incentives to use this crisis to push all kinds of agendas. I'd be wary about predictions.
    - umanwizard 7y ago
      Some events permanently change the course of history, forever. Like the second world war, or the European discovery of America.
  - __blockcipher__ 7y ago
    > Who knows if this coronavirus will ever truly go away? Wait, what? I keep hearing this notion floated around and I'm honestly very confused. Are people under the impression that our lockdowns are going to eradicate this? Or are you using "going away" as a metaphor for "will recede to the background level of death from flu/etc that we have learned to tune out?" It should be stunningly obvious that a highly infectious respiratory disease that is present in every country, originally came from animals and has shown the ability to infect other animals will never be eradicated. There's too many reservoirs, even if the totalitarian dream that everyone seems to want were a full reality. If you meant the other sense, then it should be equally obvious that this will eventually pass through the population and we will build immunity to it, at which point Covid-19 joins the friendly cast of characters such as the common cold coronaviruses, common cold rhinoviruses, adenoviruses, influenza, etc. In short, a disease that kills people but not in numbers that we freak out about. (And incidentally once the globe has been exposed to it it should be much less deadly than Influenza since new humans will be exposed to it as babies/young children and not as 80+ year old nursing home patients, and Covid simply does not kill young children in significant numbers) What's that? Do I hear the "There's no evidence for immunity to covid-19" crowd in the distance? I'm getting a bit tired of that line, but if someone wants me to dismantle that argument (again) I am happy to.
    - xkapastel 7y ago
      > It should be stunningly obvious > it should be equally obvious Clearly it is not obvious, considering most people have never spent a significant amount of time thinking about how infectious diseases work. > What's that? Do I hear the "There's no evidence for immunity to covid-19" crowd in the distance? I'm getting a bit tired of that line, but if someone wants me to dismantle that argument (again) I am happy to. Why make a snarky, coy comment like this? If you have something to say about immunity then just say it. In fact the WHO are among those who make this claim[0], so "dismantle" away. [0]: https://www.who.int/news-room/commentaries/detail/immunity-passports-in-the-context-of-covid-19 https://www.who.int/news-room/commentaries/detail/immunity-p...
      - __blockcipher__ 7y ago
RhysU 7y ago
> The easy take would be that a lot of people are finding out how the other half lives... ...and that the market has already priced in the uncertainty. So long as the expected value improves, the markets can weather a long tail of suffering absent political upheaval that might change the game. The media has spent years trumpeting that things are broken and precarious. That many folks cannot pay their mobile phone bills or cable bills or credit card bills at the first hint of a downturn is not news.

sproketboy 7y ago

250 Million will starve to death unless we get the economy back up. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/30/world/asia/coronavirus-india-lockdown.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/30/world/asia/coronavirus-in... But who cares right?

lobbyingWins 7y ago

Can't afford food? Between food stamps and eating for $1.50/day (source- https://efficiencyiseverything.com/eat-for-1-50-per-day-layoffs-coronavirus-quarantine-food-shortages/ https://efficiencyiseverything.com/eat-for-1-50-per-day-layo...) I don't think the problem is the cost of food. Rent, sure. Health insurance, sure. Food? Not the major expense, especially with food stamps.

chongli 7y ago
A lot of people live in so-called "food deserts" [1]. That means they don't have access to fresh produce or bulk ingredients like milk, flour, eggs, beans, rice, pasta, or potatoes. Instead, they're stuck with convenience store food which is mostly junk food. If they wanted to buy healthier food they'd have to travel a long way to reach a grocery store, a problem greatly exacerbated for those who do not own a car. It's not easy to carry home 10lbs of potatoes and 10lbs of beans by public transit, let alone on foot. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_desert https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_desert
- lostmsu 7y ago
  They define "food desert" as 10 mile distance. I don't know how many of those 23 mil. don't have any means of transportation, but most probably do, in which cases 10 mile is just 10-20 minutes of driving away.
  - cultofmetatron 7y ago
    by comparison, I'm in greece and no matter where I go in this city, there's always little shops with fresh vegetable ad fruit withing a 5 minute walk tops
  - wbronitsky 7y ago
    People are going hungry because they live in food deserts. The GP has proved this and you dismiss it. Why would people make this argument if people weren’t actually going hungry?
  - 7y ago

roenxi 7y ago

I suspect shutting down such broad swathes of the economy is unprecedented even in wartime. Nobody has any idea what we are toying with here or what happens next. It wouldn't be surprising if everything worked out well, and it isn't unthinkable that this ushers in the worst decade of chaos and suffering in the last 200 years. The economy is the most complicated machine we have and nobody knows what it is doing right now.

MiroF 7y ago
> worst decade of chaos and suffering in the last 200 years Where in the world do you all come up with these statements?
- reminddit 7y ago
  that adds to sensational phrases msm uses
- umanwizard 7y ago
  The point was that we don’t have any clue whatsoever what will happen because this has never been done before in human history.
  - FuckButtons 7y ago
    No, we don’t, but that uncertainty doesn’t mean that it’s definitely an unprecedented calamity. This is not good, but how not good is yet to be seen and anyone who claims to know how things will shake out is lying or fooling themselves.
    - jobigoud 7y ago
      Nobody claimed anything, they said it was "not unthinkable".
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
7y ago

nimbius 7y ago

Im sure someone on HN has explained this before, but why are the markets steady and rebounding when the actual state of the US economy is so dire?? I've been waiting on that promised $1200 check for 2 days shy of an entire month now, and every day that passes I see another bar or clothing store or furniture outlet with boards up on the windows.

olivermarks 7y ago
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/nomura-only-machines-are-buying-stocks-humans-stay-home https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/nomura-only-machines-are-b...
karlshea 7y ago
> why are the markets steady and rebounding when the actual state of the US economy is so dire? Because everything anyone involved in the markets has ever told you is a complete lie.
- dang 7y ago
  Maybe so, but please don't post unsubstantive comments here.
  - karlshea 7y ago
    What, exactly, was unsubstantive about that comment? I'm flabbergasted that after what the market has done in the last couple of months, especially given the OP, that anyone is under the impression investors have any idea what they're doing. Please, everyone tell me some more about it all being "priced in."
    - bathtub365 7y ago
      Not to speak for dang, but such a broad and potentially inflammatory assertion typically warrants references or at least some elaboration on how you came to that position
- 7y ago