Here in the midwest most smaller retail stores, even ones in plazas and malls were already barely breaking even. The kmarts , Sears and regional big stores wer already closing. Where I live is a small city and many smaller towns. There is only one store to buy appliances. The smaller shops had very little foot traffic before corona, barely paying rent, struggling to compete with online and free shipping.
I dont see many of these store opening back up. Let me rephrase that. I see very few of these store re-opening and the ones that do, I see very few making it. Foot traffic is going to be even worse after this. So how do you operate a service based economy with no jobs.
Before I get screamed at with the same old internet empathy platitudes like “learn to code” and “learn to weld”. Welding jobs aren’t going to be big for a long time. Gas prices are going to be low for awhile. There’s also not a huge call for coders right now in the midwwest. That work can be done cheaper remotely. “learn a skill” how many plumbers, electricians and hvac can a retracted economy support? Not many.
I feel very dark times coming. We’ve reshaped our society over night. Im not saying we shouldn’t have shut everything down. Im saying the re-assesment of what opens back up and the reality of actually business needs is going to hurt and hurt bad, and trickle down and hurt worse. The next ten years will not be good.
We’re going to go from the situation of: I went to school for ___ and the only job I can find is as cashier at Best Buy to there isn’t even a cashier job at Best Buy. I dont think people are ready for the economic impact of this even if Corona was gone tomorrow.
Im using my ability to look at things from another point of view. I’m not in the service industry but everyone is affected by it. If half my city loses their jobs it impacts me in many ways, even if my income is secure. Crime goes up. The people I know struggle etc etc. I agree on personal responsibility aspect but in my experience the people that give “pull yourself up by bootstraps” and “adapt or die” speeches as the solution usually come from well off families or slept into financial security. Examples. The CEOs are never arrogant pricks but their kids usually are. The doctors rarely flaunt their wealth but their gold digger wives sure do etc. Its usually the people on the periphery of success that say cold things like that not the actual achievers. Just my experience.
AC