Waves of bankruptcies are about to sweep America as restaurants, farms, small manufacturers, service companies, malls and more throw in the towel for good. These people’s lives and livelihoods are being eagerly sacrificed on the altar of science while fighting COVID-19.
Firms with less than 20 employees employ about 90% of all U.S. employees. Last week recorded another 4.4 million claims for unemployment, bringing the total to 26.5 million since the start of the lockdown in mid-March. This erases 100 percent of the job gains since the Great Recession in 2007-2008.
Most people who are infected by COVID-19 will recover within days or weeks without any permanent damage. People who lose their businesses – in many cases generational family farms – are scarred for life and will never recover. These represent millions whereas COVID-19 represents thousands.
It is important to say this again: the overriding goal of the fear-saturated pandemic is not to ‘save lives’ but to destroy Capitalism and Free Enterprise. We know this because the United Nations has plainly stated that this is its goal: to replace the entire economic system with Sustainable Development, aka Technocracy. ⁃ TN Editor
This economic downturn is turning out to be far deeper and far more severe than most experts were originally anticipating. More than 22 million Americans have filed claims for unemployment benefits, and economists are telling us that the U.S. economy is contracting at the fastest rate that we have seen since the Second World War. We are already starting to see some high profile companies move toward bankruptcy, but the real story is what is happening to thousands upon thousands of small and mid-size businesses because of the lockdowns. Many of them were barely surviving even before this pandemic, and now these lockdowns have delivered a death blow.
The restaurant industry is a perfect example. Prior to the pandemic, there were more than a million restaurants in the United States, and about half of them were independent. Those independent restaurants employed approximately 11 million workers, and now the vast majority of those workers have been laid off.
Once the lockdowns are over, it would be wonderful if all of those independent restaurants would spring back to life, but the results of a recent survey suggest that simply is not going to happen. In fact, that survey found that 28 percent of all independent restaurants are probably not going to survive if the lockdowns last for another month…
A survey released Thursday by the James Beard Association found independent restaurants laid off 91% of their hourly employees and nearly 70% of salaried employees as of April 13 – double-digit increases in both categories since March. The poll of 1,400 small and independent restaurants found 38% of have closed temporarily or permanently, and 77% have seen their sales drop in half or worse.
Perhaps most troubling: 28% of restaurants said they don’t believe they can survive another month of closure, and only 1 out of 5 are certain they can sustain their businesses until normal operations can resume.
28 percent of 500,000 is 140,000, and so if these lockdowns are not lifted soon we could be facing a scenario is which tens of thousands of independent restaurants are lost forever.
Of course a lot of restaurants that do reopen will face a really tough struggle because fear of the coronavirus is going to keep customers away for the foreseeable future. So even if all of the lockdowns were lifted tomorrow, the restaurant industry would still not fully recover.
Sadly, the same could be said for the fitness industry. In fact, we just learned that one of the biggest fitness chains in the nation is getting ready to file for bankruptcy…
Gym chain 24 Hour Fitness is working with advisors at investment bank Lazard and law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges to weigh options including a bankruptcy that could come as soon as the next few months, people familiar with the matter tell CNBC.
The chain is grappling with a heavy debt load, deteriorating performance and a coronavirus pandemic that forced it to shut its more than 400 clubs.
Yes, a certain segment of the population is quite eager to resume all of their normal pre-pandemic activities, but even a 20 or 30 percent drop off in revenue will be fatal for many gyms.
And the truth is that a lot of people are simply not going to be in the mood to share exercise equipment with others for a long time to come.
The entertainment, tourism and retail industries have also been hit extremely hard by this pandemic. The other day I was quite stunned when I learned that Neiman Marcus “is reportedly ready to file bankruptcy”…
Neiman Marcus Group, one of the largest retailers in the United States, is reportedly ready to file bankruptcy amid the COVD-19 pandemic after defaulting millions in bond payments last week and furloughing 14,000 employees.
Neiman Marcus would become the first major US department store to crumble amidst the economic set backs from the coronavirus outbreak.
No, things are definitely not going to be returning to “normal” in America, and there will be a lot more big corporate names among the victims in the days to come.
Covid is not killing capitalism – capitalism is killing itself thru relentless greed and refusal to set aside resources for disaster because it costs too much.
Recently saw a news clip on YouTube where J. Crew has filed for Chapter 11. I personally don’t care because I have never shopped there, but it’s a sign of what is to come.
JR this is
November 2, 2022 12:38 pm
EXACTLY what the fasco-Marxists want… no middle class
wpDiscuz
Covid is not killing capitalism – capitalism is killing itself thru relentless greed and refusal to set aside resources for disaster because it costs too much.
Radical left wing terrorist lies
What rubbish , where have you been recently?
Recently saw a news clip on YouTube where J. Crew has filed for Chapter 11. I personally don’t care because I have never shopped there, but it’s a sign of what is to come.
EXACTLY what the fasco-Marxists want… no middle class
Next stop, Venezuela!