theweek | Over the last week, just under 1 million people
filed for ordinary unemployment benefits, plus another half-million
under the special pandemic unemployment program for people who don't
ordinarily qualify, a substantial decline from some of the numbers seen
since the beginning of the pandemic. At this rate, by mid-September or
so, new unemployment claims will be merely as bad as they were during
the worst of the Great Recession.
Those unemployment benefits, however, because this country has
systematically stripped and sabotaged its safety net, are extremely
meager and often nearly impossible to actually get. Hundreds of
thousands of private citizens who have lost their jobs are flocking to Reddit
for help and advice, as state unemployment bureaucracies are so janky
and swamped they often can't deal with the flood of applications.
In the past week, the r/unemployment subreddit has taken a dark turn with the expiration of the CARES Act's super-unemployment
and the failure of Republicans to even come to an agreement about what
they want in the next round of pandemic relief. It's become a de facto
support group for people whose lives are collapsing around them for
simple lack of income or jobs, and talk of suicide is common.
One wonders: Is America about to see bread protests, or even riots?
People around the country have been testifying how they are down to
their last dollar or flat broke, facing eviction or living on the
street, unable to afford vital prescriptions or even food. "I've got
$18.91 in my bank account this morning. My cupboards are getting low, my
dog will have to eat whatever me and my kids eat and my gas light will
be back on shortly," wrote one Redditor recently.
"My car payment was due today and I'm still $200 short, 500 counting
last month's. My phone bill is due in a few days. I'm a month behind on
the electric bill. I have about $60 to my name, I'm not going to make
rent and my [landlords] have already said they will not be giving any
allowances," wrote another.
"Well I've waited and now my power turns off at the end of today, in a
house where my entire family has moved in with me … worst of all I have
two toddlers and virtually nowhere to go.
'Rona and the government have
picked off my family one by one and this seems to be the final nail in
the coffin," wrote a third.
