Looks like I’ve been quarantined by my mother and grandmother. They’re replacing my salary for a month so I don’t have to work. There’s no point arguing. These women are mountains.
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Illinois is getting a shelter-in-place order starting tomorrow.
I expected this, at least for Chicago, but I am Freaking The Fuck Out right now and I still have a half day of work deadlines to get through.
I really really hope my Chewy order goes through. I placed it on the 17th and they’re running 5-8 days behind. So far one thing I ordered is already out of stock since I placed the order. I have 18 days’ worth of food for them in the house right now and I’m scared that’s not going to be enough.
There is going to be so much panic buying, you guys. Boyfriend went to the grocery store at 8 a.m. The only thing we really needed that he couldn’t get was flour; there were a couple nice-to-haves on the list that were also out but I don’t care about that. He said by the time he left people were seriously pouring in. With this announcement it’s gonna be a zoo. I’m predicting mass hysteria.
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What good people to come from 
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What percentage does unemployment in the US cover? Because I know a lot of the states are offering unemployment because of this.
I have like VERY REAL IMPORTANT shit to do with work and I am much more interested in reading the news and looking at wombat videos.
60% though it depends on how much you make, high and low income will see a slight difference. But the difference is the gov’t in the UK is stepping in to encourage businesses to KEEP WORKERS ON rather than being unemployed by paying their wages.
They are also:
- doing business interruption loans, interest free, for 12 months.
- Raising universal credit (that’s kinda their welfare + unemployment) to be the same as statuary paid leave and making self-employed people eligible for it (so they can get sick pay).
- making VAT not due this quarter.
- letting self-assessment (tax payments for the self-employed) be delayed til Jan next year.
- greater renter assistance for people receiving housing benefit
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Oh, okay I see the difference now. That’s pretty big.
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I have never felt the need to watch wombat videos, but now might be the time.
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I cannot recommend watching this wombat who JUST WANTS TO HELP DO THE LAUNDRY enough:
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Planning on falling into a wombat video watching hole after work.
Also, did I hear her name is Hazel? 
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Be like me, do it DURING work instead of actually running SQL queries on fucking massive datasets.
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My boss is here. He’s been super patient with the virus stuff, but wombats would definitely pass his limits!
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Ah…benefits of not working from home, you feel more social pressure to actually work instead of reading the news and screaming existentially on the floor.
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Wisconsin announced its first 3 deaths to COVID-19. Not in my county, but (3) other counties across the state.
Very surreal.
I worked from home yesterday and neither Partner or I left the house. Today she’s on a walk to the pharmacy to get a prescription and also some snacks. Possibly more beer.
I’m resisting the urge to do more grocery shopping. It won’t help, might make things worse for someone else, and we’re okay for the next week.
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Planted lettuce (south facing balcony so not too early) and signing up for a local CSA. Food scarcity is a huge inner bag lady issue for me, so supply chain/economy stuff has me scared shittless haha. No better time to revamp my hyperlocal food (NOT via grocery stores even) than the present!
On the other hand, normally we hear from our rancher by now and they’re not replying 
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Same. I spent the last half hour attempting to make a positive “little lion man” version. IT’S FINE…
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I feel this so hard.
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For what it’s worth, to anyone worrying about Imminent Collapse: We are several days into our shelter-in-place and nothing has collapsed here. Grocery stores are still getting stocked. There is food. There is water and electricity and internet.
Yes, there have been people stocking up massively. Yes, it is surreal af to walk into a Trader Joe’s and not see any rice. However, everyone is hunkering down now, and the stores have been able to stock back up and keep themselves doing alright. My personal guess is that everywhere is going to have a week or two of low stocks as people panic and stock up and shelves are empty, and then will go back to more normal grocery stocking patterns as people just stay home and eat a week or two of groceries, and then go out and get a week or two of groceries to bring themselves back up to their Pandemic Comfort Levels.
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I grew up quite country. I mainly love living in the city. But sometimes, at times like this, I panic a little.
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It’s not the shelter in place orders that worry me. It’s the recession this is causing. I’m worried parts of the supply chain will go bankrupt/stop running temporarily/etc.
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What is the scenario in which you envision e.g. your local grocery store running out of food? I’m genuinely curious because I’m not a macroeconomics expert, just a decently smart cookie, and I want to know what I might be missing. The only ones I can come up with are ones where the situation is far, far worse than it appears to be right now – largely ones where we experience other significant disaster. I can of course imagine those, but they are much less likely than other, more immediate concerns, and well – not gonna borrow trouble.
Grocery stores are doing pretty good business right now. I suspect that companies which do transit for food and basic goods are still doing fine, too. There are no closures to agriculture, to food transit, to water management, or anything that is vital for societal function, all for very good reason – that would be a cause for immediate panic for sure. There will continue to be workers for those industries, even if workers quit or get sick, because recessions create a lot of people who need work. (That sounds callous but… yeah.)
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