So you met someone, and of course you don't know how they were doing before. I'm asking about people you actually know, and have known for some years. I know of no one personally, that I have known for some years, who is worse off.
But IMHO that is symptom of our class society, how separated the classes are. The people who are doing badly now are largely people who were living paycheck to paycheck and are among the millions of people who were laid off. Many of the people who post here are investors and we have, for the most part, done well over the past year unless we were scared out of our positions last March. One piece of anecdotal evidence for me is that my friend who owns a lot of rental units says many of his renters are behind, including those who never fell behind before.
And unless you don't believe that the lines at the food banks are real, surely you must acknowledge that things are far worse now than a year ago. Just because you personally don't know anyone in need (or know anyone who admits to being in need) doesn't mean that there aren't a lot of very needy people out there.
‘This can’t wait.’ Why long food lines signal need for more coronavirus stimulus aid
Published Wed, Nov 25 202010:52 AM ESTUpdated Wed, Nov 25 20208:43 PM EST
Lorie Konish
Key Points
- An estimated 12% of U.S. adults have recently experienced some type of food shortage, according to recent research.
- Households that are more likely to be short on food include those with children.
- While emergency nutrition benefits are available, strengthening unemployment protections through another coronavirus stimulus bill would be more effective, experts say.
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Ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, a temporary drive-through to distribute food to those in need was set up near Lancaster, California, north of Los Angeles, on Tuesday.
At least 2,000 families went through the line in a three-hour period, according to a rough estimate from Michael Flood, president and CEO of Los Angeles Regional Food Bank.
The food the organization is distributing currently reaches approximately 900,000 people per month through its work with 700 partner agencies, Flood said. That’s well above the 350,000 people per month it was serving before the Covid-19 pandemic hit.
“If you told me in January, your distribution is going to increase 145% and you’ll be reaching 900,000 people per month by the fall, I would have said, ‘I don’t think so,’” Flood said.
“But that’s what’s happened.”
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From California to New York, pictures have emerged of thousands of people waiting to receive groceries from their local food banks ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.
It’s one side effect that has cropped up as a result of the coronavirus pandemic that continues to sweep the nation. Experts say the problem is rooted in high unemployment and low cash flow.
Almost 26 million adults said their households either sometimes or often did not have enough to eat in the prior seven days, according to a survey conducted between late October and early November. Those affirmative responses account for 12% of all U.S. adults, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive Washington, D.C., think tank.
Pre-pandemic, just 3.7% of adults said they had not had enough to eat at some point during all of 2019.
Children are often the most affected by the recent increases in food insecurity, the research found.
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When asked if their household didn’t have enough to eat, 16% of those with children said yes compared to 9% of those with no kids.
Black and Latino households were more likely to be affected.
The biggest culprit for the increased hunger is rising unemployment, said Ed Bolen, senior policy analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
“Certainly the loss of a job or a significant loss of hours can significantly impact a family’s ability to purchase food,” Bolen said.
The food lines popping up around the country are mostly tied to the spikes in coronavirus cases and subsequent job losses.
In many communities, food banks saw demand spike when the extra $600 per week in federal unemployment benefits expired over the summer, Bolen said.
continues with videos and more text at cnbc.com
People wait in line at a food bank in the Borough Park area of Brooklyn, New York, Sept. 25, 2020.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters |
