Covid19 Part XIX-25,802 in ROI (1,753 deaths) 5,859 in NI (556 deaths) (21/07)Read OP

• As COVID-19 infections increased in March, high-income households sharply reduced their spending, primarily on services that require in-person interactions.
  
• Because of this reduction in spending by high-income consumers, businesses in the most affluent neighborhoods in America lost more than 70% of their revenue.
  
• As these businesses lost revenue, they laid off their employees, particularly low-income workers. Nearly 70% of low-wage workers working in the highest-rent ZIP codes lost their jobs, compared with 30% in the lowest-rent ZIP codes.
  
• Policy efforts to date — stimulus payments to households and Paycheck Protection Program loans to small businesses — have not led to a rebound in spending at the businesses that lost the most revenue. As a result, they have had a limited impact on the employment rates of low- income workers.
  
• In the long-term, the only way to drive economic recovery is to invest in public health efforts that will restore consumer confidence and spending.
  
• In the meantime, providing and extending targeted assistance to low-income workers impacted by the economic downturn (such as through unemployment benefits) is critical for reducing hardship and addressing disparities in COVID’s impacts.

What this analysis means for policy going forward
A large initial reduction in spending by high- income households driven by health concerns about COVID-19 has cascaded through to a loss of business for firms that cater to high-income customers, leading to layoffs of low-wage workers at those businesses. Given this sequence of events, the only path to full economic recovery in the long run is to restore consumer confidence by focusing on health policies that will address the virus itself. Traditional economic tools — loans to firms or

ACitizenErased wrote: »

20% of the population is less than 14 so 60% of the remainder is about 2.3 million, we’re nearly 20% there