Topic: Coronavirus outbreak

Last man standing.

500 employees. Everyone is laid off starting next week... except for 2 people... and I'm one of them. Gotta push this PPAP through so the company can collect payment.

Then, after next week, I'm laid off too.

That's it. That's a wrap. Surprised I lasted as long as I did. WI still has a one week waiting period for unemployment, too. Doubt the state legislature will have changed it by the end of next week.

@JaxonH

I obviously don't know the various economic situations and constraints of every company out there, but I don't understand why more companies haven't tried to do what British Airways have just done, and said they're "temporarily suspending" but not firing most of their staff.

@JaxonH Dood, I’m gutted for you. Thank goodness you’re not destitute right now. I could be wrong, but I think that CARES Act allowed states to waive any waiting period for filing claims. I know Georgia has chosen to do so, and it didn’t require additional state legislation.

@Dezzy Some companies are able to do furloughs, but typically furloughs only last a year. Depending on the business and impact, some employers don’t foresee even being solvent that long. Depending on the state, furloughs also continue to maintain health coverage which is an added employer expense without additional revenue. And as bad as it sounds, this is also a time where some employers are examining exactly why they spend X on person Y of person Z benefits the agency more at a lower or equal cost.

@HobbitGamer
Thanks. As long as we're called back by July 31st when extended benefits end, I'll see this as a video game vacation. But if it lasts longer, there could be trouble.

Unfortunately Wisconsin still hasn't waived it. The governor and state legislature want to but are still hashing out details and, certainly wont have a bill passed and signed by April 12.

I want heads on pikes for the imbeciles, worldwide that let this out of Asia to begin with. The airline industry should have been mined for scrap metal Jan 1. No slaps on the wrist. Everyone responsible for this overwhelming failure should be hung in the public squares when all is said and done. They chose to risk everyone to calamity to save their status quo in hopes it would all go away. Italy stoned their last dictator in public. He wasn't half as bad as the damage the modern leadership have done, everywhere.

@HobbitGamer Welcome to a world of permanent 40%+ unemployment. A lot of the jobs going away will never come back. And we only need so many paper pushers in an age of automation. More and more, especially if it goes on like this for a long time, I see a MASSIVE resurgence of Communism worldwide, maybe even in the US, out of public demand. The next half century is going to be one of the worst times in history to be alive.

Not to mention, there's only so long in this world discretionary money for entertainment will broadly exist. The future of Nintendo and gaming in general is probably very uncertain in general in the longer term.

@JaxonH Sorry to hear that, not that it's not going to be the norm for most of the population soon. Whatever it was you did there, and whatever they did there, that sounded like a dream job to you.

@NEStalgia
Thanks.

And wow, sounds like you've got enough anger over this for the both of us 😉

I do foresee hard times ahead, but I dont think it's going to be that extreme, at least, not from this crisis. Also, most of the world's schools of macroeconomic thought are divided between communism and capitalism, and communist countries like China are moving more and more toward capitalism while the western capitalist countries are moving more and more toward communism. Seems like most of the world's economic ideas are merging in the center with a socialism-capitalism hybrid of sorts. So for better or worse, that's where we're headed. And from a glass half full pov, merging in the middle is far less worrisome than a full swing, which is well beyond what I see as a realistic worst case scenario. I don't think 1st world countries are going to go full communism all of a sudden.

It could go full depression, the difference is, unlike in The Great Depression, we have legions of Keynesian economists in government now who believe in the notion of government stimulus and debt in a depression to compensate for reduced consumer spending. And, while there are severe long term consequences to such an extreme expansion of the money supply, and will inevitably result in the dollar being inflated away, that may not happen for some time, especially given the faith the world puts in the dollar as the world's reserve currency... in the short term, it will have a significant positive effect.

As soon as a vaccine is out, the economy will start recovering. So, plan for a rough 12-18 months, but at least with a safety net provided by the govt via expanded unemployment (let's just hope they extend it beyond July 31st if needed). If we can make it through the next year/year and a half, we'll be alright.

@Dezzy Yeah, that does seem like the more logical idea. But some companies do treat a lay off vaguely like that. I know General Motors and Ford Motor do(did?). They call back laid off employees before hiring new ones after whatever the lay off reason was is dealt with.

A teacher in our neighboring town was just confirmed to have COVID19. Right as Japan is starting to open schools up again. And one of our new teachers just transferred from that school. (Japan shuffles teachers every April) We're still getting information. But I will be shocked if we continue our plans to open classes back up. Frankly I think it would be irresponsible in the extreme. I think they need to send us all home for 2 weeks. The overall number in Japan remains relatively low, but it has been climbing consistently.

The important things are
1. Wash your hand.
2. don't touch your any part of your face.

Does anybody else feel like this whole thing is way overblown? I mean sure we gotta be careful and practice social distancing and all that but the way restaurants especially are acting it's like they are afraid they are gonna get sued and not really all that concerned about our health.

For example the other day i tried to go to a dog N suds drive in and the menu box where you order had a sign that said you must get your food and leave the primesis. I'm like really? I'm already in my car and outside! Nevermind that when people order their food they have to touch the call button which likely has already been touched by hundreds or even thousands of other customers.

It's gotten to the point now where even carry out is not allowed because god forbid anyone should come into a building where food is prepared! I went to the post office today and you know what they had in there? Sneeze guards! Freaking Sneeze guards at the post office!

Forgive my rant but if this crap goes on much longer i think i might go insane! So sick of this overprotective paranoid BS! Alot of diseases kill people. Why are we acting like this one is the end of all humanity?

Will this agony ever end!?

@Zeldafan79 Those precautions are there to keep that business running. If staff get it they'll probably have to close. They don't want people coming in and contaminating their workspace. By doing that it enables them to keep serving YOU with your order, and it allows the economy to keep ticking along, albeit at a reduced rate.

I've basically been a hermit for years, yet I'm already at my wit's end with this whole Social Distancing thing. I'm so bored. I'm finally in a situation where it's perfectly acceptable to stay inside all day and play video games, with no one judging me, and I...just want to go outside and do literally anything. Just for a change of pace. I guess being ahead of the curve has its drawbacks...

My Uncle in NC is waiting at home for the results of a Covid test. Monday he had his gallbladder removed, then Wednesday he had some chest congestion. Thursday he went back to the doctor to find he has a fever of 101 and pneumonia in both lungs. His wife (my mom’s sister) works intake at the ER (same hospital his gallbladder was removed), and was told she still needed to work today because they were so short staffed.
So that happened. Meanwhile, when our GA governor issued a shelter in place on Wednesday, he said that he wasn’t aware that asymptomatic people could infect others until now 😑

@Zeldafan79 in a time when there's thousands of deaths, people will have a life time of respiratory problems and the mass of redundancies resulting in people losing their homes if all you have got to worry about is having to look at a sign whilst you're eating junk food you're very lucky and you should try to appreciate that.

Had to drop off a check at Lowe’s. There’s waaaay too many people there buying random crap like it’s a normal day

@Zeldafan79 It will, as long as there aren't many idiots(to put it nicely) intentionally contaminating products in grocery stores. I'm glad it's being taken seriously, as opposed to the previous pandemic. I still had to go to school when the Swine Flu was around.

I didn't mean to seem like i don't take it seriously or don't care. I guess I've just never heard of a virus causing this much panic and widespread fear that the whole world has to shut down and everybody is acting like it's the apocalypse. Then the president issues a stay at home order and it's like we're on house arrest. I was always pretty much an introvert anyway so telling me to keep my distance from people isn't alot different from what i was already doing. I certainly don't remember any lockdowns over bird flu, swine flu, Sars or any other rampant disease going around. I guess I'm just wigging out.

It's like we're in hell or something!

@Zeldafan79
Apocalypse will NOT happen on this year, NOT by any chance.
Corona virus must DIE and the nonsense babble about Apocalypse Day was a stupid idea ever.
It will NOT happen.
Be strong.
We will DEFY the fate.
The fate will NOT conduct our lives.

Exactly. It’s not the apocalypse by any means, but it is a threat. By the time everything is said and done a quarter million people may have died. End of the world? No. Tragic? Yes.

The virus is only affecting a small percentage of people (for now, at least). But the economic fallout is affecting the vast majority of people.

Put those two together and you have yourself a crisis.

@Heavyarms55 i just saw a tv news story talking to a doctor in Tokyo, saying Tokyo is having a rise with virus cases in line with new york city's numbers weeks ago. I never thought japan would have these problems, because they are so well organized. I really hope the news story is wrong, or precautionary.