{"id":211066,"date":"2020-07-28T07:04:10","date_gmt":"2020-07-28T07:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=211066"},"modified":"2020-07-30T07:45:09","modified_gmt":"2020-07-30T07:45:09","slug":"when-it-comes-to-economic-suffering-some-parts-of-the-u-s-are-feeling-it-far-more-than-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=211066","title":{"rendered":"When It Comes To Economic Suffering, Some Parts Of The U.S. Are Feeling It Far More Than Others"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Snyder \u2013 The Economic Collapse July 26, 2020<\/strong><\/h1>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

2020 has been a very tough year for the U.S. as a whole, but some portions of the country have been hit much harder than others.\u00a0 For example, if you live in a rural area that hasn\u2019t seen any civil unrest and that hasn\u2019t been hit very hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, the way that you are living your life now may seem nearly unchanged from the way you were living your life in 2019.\u00a0 But if you live in an urban area that has experienced endless protests and rioting<\/strong><\/span><\/a> and that has seen COVID-19 sweep through local neighborhoods like wildfire, your life in 2020 may look radically different from the way it looked in 2019.\u00a0 Unfortunately, conditions in our largest cities are not likely to improve dramatically any time soon.<\/span><\/p>\n

But many people that live in rural communities are feeling pretty good about things right now.\u00a0 Even though more than 52 million Americans<\/a><\/strong><\/span> have filed new claims for unemployment benefits over the last 18 weeks, the official unemployment rate in many rural counties is still in the single digits.<\/span><\/p>\n

I know that may be difficult to believe, but that is what the numbers tell us.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sadly, in many of our largest cities it is a completely different story.\u00a0 New York City was one of the early epicenters of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, and many of us will never forget watching video footage of the looting that took place in the heart of Manhattan earlier this year.\u00a0 As a result of all of this chaos, the unemployment rate in the state as a whole\u00a0is nearly twice the national average<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

New York\u2019s unemployment rate rose to 20.4% last month, according to state-level\u00a0data<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0issued Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that detailed figures for some large metro areas. That\u2019s up from 18.3% in May and 15% in April.<\/span><\/p>\n

We see a very similar story when we look at the city of Los Angeles.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thanks to COVID-19 and endless civil unrest, the official unemployment rate in the city\u00a0is hovering near 20 percent<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

Los Angeles, the second-largest U.S. city, has seen a similar level of joblessness.<\/span><\/p>\n

Its unemployment rate recovered slightly in June but remains startlingly high\u00a0\u2014 at 19.5%, versus 20.6% in May, according to\u00a0data<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0published Friday by California\u2019s Employment Development Department.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, it appears that the COVID-19 pandemic and the violence in our major cities are both going to be with us for the foreseeable future.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some people think that the civil unrest will disappear if Joe Biden wins in November, but I do not believe that is the case.\u00a0 Nearly all of the major cities where the violence is happening are controlled by radical Democrats, and those radical Democrats have been completely unable to control the riots<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.\u00a0 To the protesters, Republicans and Democrats are both two sides of the same coin and are both responsible for the injustices in our society, and they are not going to give up on their goals just because a moderate Democrat like Joe Biden wins the election.<\/span><\/p>\n

At this point, millions upon millions of Americans are sticking closer to home these days because of COVID-19 and all the unrest, and this has been particularly devastating for the leisure and hospitality industries<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

The unemployment rate in the leisure and hospitality industries, including restaurants, soared from 5.7% in February to 39.3% in April, and in June was still at an unprecedented 28.9%. By comparison, the overall unemployment rate is 11.1%, and no other industry comes close to restaurants\u2019 level.<\/span><\/p>\n

The restaurant industry employed nearly 9.2 million people in June, almost 3 million more than in April but still 25% below where it was in February. Anecdotally, though, restaurant workers\u2014even those who\u2019ve spent decades in the industry\u2014say they\u2019re looking to get out. The line of work that had been stable, geographically flexible, reliable and largely safe for generations is no more, they say.<\/span><\/p>\n

As I discussed the other day<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, we have already lost thousands upon thousands of small and independent restaurants, and this \u201crestaurant apocalypse\u201d is only going to get worse with each passing month.<\/span><\/p>\n

Moving forward, some cities may never be the same again.\u00a0 In Las Vegas, the official unemployment rate recently hit 29 percent, and everyone agrees that tourism will never recover until the pandemic ends.<\/span><\/p>\n

If this pandemic stretches on for several years, many of those unemployed workers will be forced to abandon the city entirely in order to find work elsewhere.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sadly, competition for the few good jobs that are available will become increasingly fierce, and this will result in millions of Americans falling out of the middle class.<\/span><\/p>\n

And we are starting to see some numbers that indicate that this process is already moving along very quickly.\u00a0 According to the U.S. Census Bureau<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, \u201c24 million Americans say they have little to no chance of being able to pay next month\u2019s rent\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Just think about that.<\/span><\/p>\n

We never saw anything like this during the last recession, and the Census Bureau says that things are particular dire for Black and Hispanic renters<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

This month, nearly 28% of Black renters say they haven\u2019t paid last month\u2019s rent, and about 46% say they have slight or no confidence they\u2019ll be able to pay next month\u2019s rent, according to figures from the Census Bureau\u2019s Household Pulse Survey. Hispanic renters face similar economic strain: 22% say they missed last month\u2019s rent and 46% fear they won\u2019t make rent next month.<\/span><\/p>\n

Those numbers are simply eye-popping.\u00a0 As people increasingly get behind on their bills, the cries for more direct government assistance will become deafening<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, and it appears that Republicans and Democrats in Congress both want to pass yet another stimulus bill.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course that will mean borrowing and spending more gigantic piles of money that we do not currently have, but at this point most Americans do not seem to care that we are literally completely destroying our financial future.<\/span><\/p>\n

For such a long time, I warned that the next economic downturn would be worse than the last recession, and that has turned out to be precisely correct.<\/span><\/p>\n

And what we are experiencing right now will pale in comparison to what is eventually comin<\/strong><\/span>g<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

But for most people, the only thing that seems to matter is what is happening here and now.<\/span><\/p>\n

And at this moment we are seeing tremendous economic suffering in major cities all over the nation, and in an election year very few of our politicians want to be the \u201cbad guy\u201d that says that we can\u2019t hand out \u201cfree money\u201d to everyone.<\/span><\/p>\n

So our currency will continue to be rapidly devalued, our debt levels will continue to explode, and we shall get to see where this relentless march toward socialism takes us.<\/span><\/p>\n

About the Author<\/strong>: I am a voice crying out for change in a society that generally seems content to stay asleep. My name is Michael Snyder and I am the publisher of\u00a0The Economic Collapse Blog<\/strong><\/span><\/a>,\u00a0End Of The American Dream<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0The Most Important News<\/strong><\/span><\/a>,<\/strong><\/span> and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe. I have written four books that are available\u00a0on Amazon.com<\/a>\u00a0including\u00a0The Beginning Of The End<\/strong><\/span><\/a>,\u00a0Get Prepared Now<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, and\u00a0Living A Life That Really Matters<\/strong><\/span><\/a>. (#CommissionsEarned) By purchasing those books you help to support my work. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but due to government regulations I need those that republish my articles to include this \u201cAbout the Author\u201d section with each article. In order to comply with those government regulations, I need to tell you that the controversial opinions in this article are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the websites where my work is republished. The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions. Those responding to this article by making comments are solely responsible for their viewpoints, and those viewpoints do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of Michael Snyder or the operators of the websites where my work is republished. I encourage you to follow me on social media on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>and\u00a0Twitter<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, and any way that you can share these articles with others is a great help.\u00a0 During these very challenging times, people will need hope more than ever before, and it is our goal\u00a0to share the gospel of Jesus Christ<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>with as many people as we possibly can.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rural communities aren\u2019t doing so badly. But big cities like Los Angeles and New York are another story<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-211066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Commentary","category-Economics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=211066"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211102,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211066\/revisions\/211102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=211066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=211066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=211066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}