On a pleasant afternoon before Christmas I stopped by a restaurant my wife and I frequent to get some lunch in Styrofoam containers. It happened that our favorite waitress handled take-out orders that day (the only orders allowed), and, with no other customers crowding up the place we talked a bit. Her two school age kids miss their friends but are healthy. The waitress misses her co-workers: instead of ten or so employees that place had the now usual compliment of three that afternoon, one cook, one waitress/cashier and one very bored manager. She wished me Merry Christmas and hoped that 2021 will be a better year.
Maybe.
The sure bet? Next year we face the horrible consequences of 2020.
Yes, we get a new President, a guy who seems to want to do the job and not just shoot tweets out his butt at 3:00 a.m.
Yet, the damage done to this nation’s place in the world and the utter destruction of government operations from the EPA and Department of the Interior to USDA and the Department of State will take years of repair. So much has not been done.
Here’s one ‘deep in the reeds’ example…Each month for decades USDA published detailed data down the individual state level on the number of Americans getting food stamps, how much they got and such. Go to that part of the USDA Food and Nutrition Service website and, well, the latest numbers are from April 2020. (By now they should have October posted.) True, the number of folks who use that data is small – maybe a couple of dozen of us in all of Missouri – but that information is critical to understanding trends and responding to hunger.
Another consequence of 2020 to deal with: the destruction wrought by COVID-19.
The great news, the early Christmas present, has been the roll-out of great, effective vaccines. Alas, the reality remains that most of us won’t get vaccinated until the middle of 2021 and some will wait until 2022. Until we reach that magical, mystical “herd immunity” level – once touted as 70% of the population vaccinated, now pushed to 90% or so the virus will kick our butts.
True, some don’t realize they even have COVID. Others die or struggle – like the three year old boy from Missouri who suffered a COVID caused stroke! The most optimistic estimates stand at two more dying for every three Americans we’ve lost, 550,000 people dead. Other scientists expect the death toll to be high.
And, many of our friends suffer unexpected impacts from the virus and isolation, such as the rise in alcohol and drug abuse behind closed doors…
“No one is talking about a glass of wine anymore,” said Ms. [Martha] Duke…”People are measuring by the bottle. That scares me. I know too many women who went from one or two glasses to two bottles of wine to vodka in your coffee cup.”
Alarms Sounded… New York Times 12/27/20
Back to my waitress…
Not only is her employer struggling but the entire restaurant industry clings to the cliff by their last two fingers. Yes, there will be a time when my wife and I feel comfortable eating out every Thursday evening again. But it won’t be soon.
It may not be in 2021.
We must expect that the total number of jobs in the hospitality industry – every place from airplanes and cruise ships to restaurants and resorts – will contract. So too banks will get by with fewer employees and stores with smaller staffs and shortened hours and…you get the idea.
All the consequences of 2020 still await us. Hang on.
Glenn
Graphic source : National Restaurant Industry.