How much does the average American family earn in 2020? Why household income figures are going to get shattered because of Covid-19 and 65 million Americans on Social Security
The typical American family was already having a tough time prior to Covid-19 and many were living paycheck to paycheck. Surveys conducted prior to Covid-19 showed that 1 out of 3 Americans were not able to sustain an emergency expense of $1,000. As many of you know, even a small illness would shatter this amount. This was before the global pandemic and now, we have over 36 million Americans that are unemployed or collecting unemployment insurance. That is a problem but we now have compounding issues hitting all at once. Do you know that we now have 65 million Americans receiving Social Security benefits? That is roughly 20% of the entire living population in the US, including babies and kids (they clearly don’t pay taxes). While we hear the horror stories, how much does the typical family earn in 2020? Let us dig into the data.
Read MoreThe Student Debt Bubble Implosion: $1.68 trillion in student loan debt and a big portion is not being paid while COVID-19 is only making it worse
Higher education has always held a space as a beacon of hope for our country. The great equalizer and a platform for hard working Americans to retool and come out with the skills necessary for the jobs of tomorrow. One of the big challenges being faced in higher education of course is the incredibly high cost to go to college. Many private schools charge $50,000 to $70,000 a year to attend for a 4-year degree. And now with many universities being remote, people are realizing what they are getting for via Zoom (and it is certainly not worth it for basic courses). With college, we have the credential piece but also the experiential experience of being on-campus. Right now, the on-campus experience is largely absent. But you know what isn’t absent? The $1.68 trillion in student loan debt floating in the market.
Read MoreThe Long Winter: Number of people filing for unemployment insurance hits 36.4 million and unemployment rate at highest level since the Great Depression
The economic situation continues to deteriorate as 36.4 million Americans have now filed for unemployment insurance in the last 8 weeks. This is a daunting number that is down right shocking given that only two months ago, we were near “full employment†and the stock market was near all-time highs. The number of people filing for unemployment insurance is startling and the pace at which we are losing jobs is distressing. For now, frontline jobs in hospitality, entertainment, and travel are taking big hits but you are now seeing secondary impacts in other industries like Uber, retail, and some tech companies that were not positioned well to deal with this crisis. It is becoming clear that this is going to be a long winter in terms of the economic fallout.
Read More30.3 million Americans have filed for unemployment insurance in the last six weeks. There is also a backlog so numbers would be higher
The unemployment figures that we are seeing are startling. We have now seen 30.3 million people file for unemployment insurance in the last six weeks. These numbers are historic even when comparing to the Great Depression. The notion that we will have a sharp V-shape recovery is simply not going to be the case. While shutting things down can happen quickly, starting them back up is not going to be the case. For one, you now have people that are worried about getting a virus that is still circulating around the country at high levels. In many places, the curve has only flattened because people have used social distancing. But the numbers will likely go right back up once the economy opens up, if we go back to the old normal. It is evident that we did not have a robust enough system to deal with a pandemic like this.
Read More