Did the Economy Collapse because of Covid or Did Covid expose a weak economy?

 

Throughout history mankind has battled a common enemy: disease. Diseases have plagued humanity and will continue to plague humanity because just like humans, diseases evolve.

Modern medicine has armed us with host of techniques, medicines, and vaccines to help combat diseases and keep them from spreading, but one thing that modern medicine doesn’t protect against is the economy. No amount of medicine will fix an ailing economy, so it begs the question did Covid cause the economic downturn or did Covid expose a weak economy? In my opinion, I think Covid exposed a weak economy and here is why.

Employment

As the pandemic got worse and people started to get laid off due to the lockdown, the government had to increase state unemployment benefits and pay out stimulus checks. This doesn’t make any sense to me because if our economy is strong and we have a system in place to ensure that under normal conditions people have enough money saved up that if they were to be unemployed the state unemployment system would be able to support that person until they are able to find adequate employment why would you need to increase the weekly benefit AND give out stimulus checks unless you know that there is some level of inequality that would have a negative impact on a group of people that would otherwise not be impacted. What I mean to say is that someone who is making $50k a year should be able to have their income supplemented should they be laid off but that is not the case which they know. So therefore it was a problem before, Covid just exacerbated it to a level that makes people see that employment in this country is weak and tenuous at best for the average middle class American while rich and hourly workers have steady work. I know from personal experience that there are no guarantees of job in corporate America. I was laid off 2 twice and that was before Covid and it is not easy going from making $3k a month down to $1200 a month. The average person is unemployed for 12-13 weeks under normal conditions, so with this pandemic that could be even longer for most people that were making over $40k a year. People say there are plenty of jobs to be had and Ivanka even said try something new but being a hiring professional I know that’s not an easy task. I have worked directly with clients and most of them want people with direct experience and they won’t waste their time talking to people who don’t have unless they “know someone”. I can’t just go get a job video editing with zero editing experience just like an electrician can’t just go get a job as an accountant. All that stuff was going on before Covid all over the country people being displaced and having to take reduced incomes just to get by. That’s the first reason I think coved exposed a weak economy.

Rich People, Tax Cuts, and Large Corporations

It’s been reported on multiple times during the pandemic that the richest people in the country are having great financial quarters while the rest of us are sucking wind just to get by. That’s what a K shaped economy looks like; the top goes up while the bottom goes down. How can that be if the economy is strong? How can half be going up while the other half keep going down? I believe I can explain this. Big business in this country affects a lot of the policy that gets written and while it may not be this big conspiracy, the people who aren’t in on it still take advantage because it’s legal and as long as it is legal who cares if it is ethical. The first instance of this is beautifully done by Trump. He gave those tax cuts to corporations under the guise that it would incentivize them to spend more on their employees when in fact all it did was give them extra cash to boost salaries, bonuses and increase automation where they can to reduce labor. Soon after the tax cuts were announced there were several layoffs happened and an increase in self-checkout lanes. It was reported that the US tax revenue dropped significantly and just recently it was reported that the trade deficit has widen and is at its highest ever recorded. Essentially what is happening is that all the people who own the businesses or invest are getting richer while the people who work below middle management and hourly are getting poorer and poorer. Again, this was all happening prior to the pandemic and it’s my belief that it only exposed the issue by exacerbating to a point where you actual can see the K shaped economy in the news when you read headlines lines talking about how the rich are still getting richer and the poor are barely able to buy groceries during a pandemic.

I am not an expert on any of this, but it’s apparent to me that Covid didn’t cause this economic downturn because the if government had a universal basic income or a better unemployment system it should have been able to accommodate the average person without needing to be increased. I will concede that it may have needed extra funding to support the larger number of unemployed but that’s it. Last, if our economy was so strong how come only the top half if it is getting better while the bottom half declines? It’s because that’s the way the system has always been. The rich have always been getting richer and all you have to look at to see that fact is the difference in pay between a top-level CEO and an hourly employee working for the same organization. That’s only getting bigger and if you graphed it out, it would probably look just like a K which would reflect the exact state of our economy.