Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/04/14/coronavirus-destroyed-u-s-job.html
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Quick tidbit for people who can- there should be a large captive audience of willing and able Japanese right now staying at home- if you’re certified, or have a degree in ESL or Japanese (I do, previous career), now might be a good time to try teaching English online via skype and such if you need an emergency job.
I could still lose my job any minute because Aerospace orders are dropping like flies but it’s nice to know I can do this if I need to.
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For what it’s worth, not everyone who applied for unemployment is necessarily permanently out of a job. There are lots of people for whom working from home isn’t an option but their employer is eager to have them back when it’s safe to do so. I’ve been put on “unpaid leave” until the pandemic is over and have applied for unemployment, but I should still have a job when it passes… assuming, of course, that the store I work for manages to survive that long.
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Nitpick: photo credit appears incorrect. That’s men and women in 1935 Detroit, not New York City Bowery men.
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GA is basically in the middle of the pack… it could have been worse, but we have a fair amount of jobs that can be done remotely, tech sector, education, or are essential retail (food service, grocery, etc), and then agriculture…
It’s still a fuck ton of jobs (just over 10%).
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Yeah - PA is a shitshow right now. Though we are doing a bit better than some neighbors on the health data.
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Presumably at this point, that’s most unemployed. Not a lot of employers have shut down yet (but presumably will at some point as this situation continues). Of course, even if the shutdown doesn’t continue, some of these businesses will close because as long as there are sick people, they won’t get enough customers (e.g. restaurants).
Also, I imagine gig workers aren’t even being included in these numbers.
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You may be right. As a freelance artist, I have applied for unemployment in California for the reason that the recent aid package states we should be allowed to, so I will know for sure in the next day or so.
I’m likely going to receive the bare minimum, but the extra boost from the federal end should help immensely.
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I can do you one better: https://whitney.org/collection/works/8061. It was shot in 1937 by Margaret Bourke White for Life Magazine.
It’s still not clear to me what’s been destroyed, exactly. No capital has been destroyed, no one has forgotten their training or experience. All the same human needs exist now as existed before. Frozen, sure. But destroyed?
The only thing I see having been destroyed is the myth of unlimited, uninterrupted economic growth. That’s gone, and never coming back. Everything else is up for negotiation.
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Capitalism requires periodic crashes in order to function - anything that cannot go on forever won’t. The good news is that anansi133 is correct, that no actual capital has been lost - just speculative (gambling) winnings which the government should allow to disappear. But they won’t, because the gamblers are running the show. Sadly, the best way out of this mess will lilkely be going back to the same-old same-old as it will seem like the easiest thing to do. Sure, lots of people will have to endure unbelievable hardships, and many of them will die. But they’re mostly poor - who really gives a shit?
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Does anyone here know enough about these figures to explain why the three states with the highest percentage of the state labor force having claimed unemployment are all exactly the same percentage? Is that a coincidence, or a function of how the numbers are calculated, or what? Seems weird to me.
Edit: Also, their postal abbreviations are all similar: MI, HI, RI. How deep does this go???
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