Coronavirus: the Bad Part Hasn't Even Started Yet

When I said I hoped I'd get out of jury duty, I didn't mean it like this, dammit.

The Georgia county where I live nowadays is trending on Twitter (at least for me) because today the CEO declared a state of emergency closing various types of businesses, and there were many heartbreaking replies along the lines of "I'm a restaurant server, my rent is due at the end of the month, how am I supposed to pay my bills if I can't work?"

I was just thinking the other day how relatively fortunate I am in pandemic terms, at least in the sense of being married to a spouse whose job is deemed "essential"; even if we had total Italy-style shutdowns he would still be working and earning money. And what money I make these days is all remote/work-at-home anyway. But if something like this had happened when I was in my teens and most of my 20s (rather, if my personal work/home/financial situation were what it was then), I'd be utterly screwed -- single and living alone, thus paying all bills myself rather than splitting them with someone; can't work to earn money because the dance clubs have shut down; and the amount of money I had in savings back then would NOT have been sufficient to see me through any extended dry spell.

And a hell of a lot of people these days are even worse off than I was then -- for example, 20-something me would still need to scrape together the April rent payment in eight days, but at least she wouldn't have a car insurance payment as well, because she/I always paid premiums six months at a time. But even THAT put me ahead of the game, compared to most of the paycheck-to-paycheck people I knew and worked with then. A lot of Americans are going to be seriously hurting without serious help, and soon.