Nearly 27 Million People Lost Their Jobs In 5 Weeks. What Are We Doing?

Over the past few weeks, every Thursday has been a rough one for me. Not because of anything in my personal life, but because we receive the news of jobless claims every single Thursday.
 
Before this pandemic, I would hardly pay attention to these numbers because they were generally great every week and even a bad week was still pretty good in the grand scheme of things, especially in comparison to the eight years of the slow economic recovery (if you could even call it that) that we had during the Obama years.
 
For the last three and a half years, we had real growth, real wages, real jobs being brought in and created and we had real prosperity. I’ve already talked about how the “jobs” Obama created were either part-time or contract jobs for the most part, so he could not be said to have been a good jobs president at all. Trump has clearly been very different and has helped bring in real growth unlike anything I had seen before (keep in mind, I am in my early-to-mid 20s).
 
But for the last five weeks, I have seen three years of growth and prosperity be wiped away like they were nothing. Three years of economic progress gone just like that. CNBC even reports that “The US economy has wiped out all the job gains since the Great Recession.” Now, that’s a misleading headline since the economy is being kept in a stranglehold right now, so it’s not the economy wiping anything out, but the point remains.
 
Every job that was created in the last TWELVE YEARS is now gone. And yet, some people still want to keep these unnecessary lockdowns (I assume the majority of people who say this still have their jobs) and some even have the gall to mock protesters as saying they are “prioritizing money over people” or “just want to get a haircut”, to which I say: “shut the hell up, you privileged jackasses.”
 
I am no fan of swearing on this site, but I am getting rather fed up with idiots who think this way.
 
First of all, no one is prioritizing money over people or money over lives. It’s a matter of lives vs. lives. I can understand people being afraid of the virus killing people and it is a very real concern. Around 50,000 people have died from the virus in the United States alone (granted, these numbers are probably a bit inflated because of the way people, particularly DeBlasio and Cuomo, are counting deaths, but let’s roll with it). There is no doubt that this is a serious issue. But that does not automatically mean that people starving to death, killing themselves, succumbing to drug abuse, and practicing domestic abuse are no longer issues in and of themselves.
 
How many people will kill themselves because they can no longer afford to live? How many will starve to death? How many will overdose and further strain hospitals (an example of how our measures wouldn’t “flatten the curve” for the purposes of not overrunning hospitals. Not to mention hospitals are laying off thousands of healthcare workers, so how does that help against the virus?)? How many children, wives and husbands will be sent to the hospital for wounds as a result of domestic abuse (and how many will be kept from going there because the abusers are with them 24/7?)? How many people will be treated in “overrun” hospitals because of attempted suicide?
 
Our response to this virus has resulted in nearly 27 million people losing their jobs in as few as five weeks. Meanwhile, some speculate that we can re-open our economy “fully” towards the end of summer or the beginning of the fall.
 
Spring started a month and three days ago. Do you really think such an option is a viable one for tens of millions of people? We have the potential to see worse unemployment rates than the Great Depression. Does that not matter to the “keep the lockdowns” crowd?
 
I know it doesn’t matter to the Left. They would love nothing more than to see this economy go down the drain and subsequently, see Trump go down with it. If the complete destruction of the economy and millions of people’s lives are what it takes to win for the Left, that should tell you everything you need to know about these demons.
 
But I know plenty of conservatives who are still against opening our economy. People who dismiss protesters and mock them for “not socially distancing” during their protests. Why? Why think this way? What does the country gain from continuing this? What does it gain by calling people out of work “privileged” people who “just want to get a haircut” or “just want to play golf”?
 
Plenty of people do not know the value of saving their money. Plenty of people do not know the value of multiple sources of income. Plenty of people believe in the big hoax that is job security. Situations like these will force such people to rethink and perhaps be a bit more fiscally conservative, but the lessons of the future do not help them today.
 
Seeing 27 million people losing their jobs, especially as quickly as they are, breaks my heart and outright leaves me depressed (as well as seeing Trump essentially throwing Georgia Governor Brian Kemp under the bus for trying to reopen his state, when Trump has been calling for “liberating” states in the last few days. I don’t get that man sometimes and that was one of the very few honest times when I have been angry with him). I genuinely did not even feel like writing anything because of such a gloomy state. But when I get depressed like this, I can always turn to the Word of God.
 
There is no doubt that I am anxious about the present and future of this country. We could be staring at the worst economic situation this country has ever faced and it’s come by our own hand. This situation is like trying to take care of a bee sting on your hand by cutting off the entire arm. The solution is almost certainly worse than the problem, but I say this without discounting the severity of the actual problem.
 
What we are seeing now makes me sad; makes me angry; and almost makes me hopeless. But like I said, I can always turn to the Word of God and this is something I hope millions of people are doing because the one silver lining that could come from all this (apart from complete economic divorce from the Chinese communists who are responsible for the world being in this sorry state) is a great Christian revival that will bring people to the Lord, whether for the first time or the first time in a long while.
 
Because the scripture says: “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble,” from Matthew 6:25-34.
 
Not a single event, small or great, has come as a surprise to God. He has known from the beginning what each one of us would be going through, both individually and as a country and even as an entire people in this world that He has created. Not a single spy from China is unknown to God. Not a single secret in Beijing is God ignorant of. Not a single crime against God and humanity committed by China or similarly evil people outside of China is God unaware of. Not a single weakness in people’s individual lives is kept from God’s knowledge. And not a single person’s future does God have to guess about.
 
Yet, for all the trouble we find in the world, be it the Chinese coronavirus, be it the inadequate, borderline-negligent response from many of our leaders, be it our financial troubles, be it our unemployment possibilities, we can rest securely in the Palm of God, who is in complete and total control over the universe. Not a single subatomic particle anywhere in this universe moves without God’s very approval. Even the devil, for all the evil he does and wishes to do, is restrained like a dog with a leash by our Creator.
 
I do not know what the future holds for us. I do not know when we will begin reopening on a national scale, or if the jobs lost will be easily recovered, or even what will ultimately cause more damage: the virus or our ridiculous response to it. But what I do know is that there is no evil to be found in God. God has ordained whatsoever has come to pass and He does not allow things to happen if they do not have a good reason for it.
 
Even a bit further in Matthew, in chapter 7, beginning from verse 7, we see the goodness of God: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”
 
Even amidst the trouble we walk through, I know He is with us. And as He not only gives, but delights in giving good things, I ask of Him that, if anything comes from this current time of tribulation, there be millions upon millions, tens of millions upon tens of millions, hundreds of millions upon hundreds of millions, who turn to You, Father, in search of redemption for their sins and in search of comfort, that they may be saved, not only from the virus and the economic repercussions of our response to it, but from the sins that they have committed.
 
These are dark and scary times, not helped by the people we call “leaders” (the Democrats truly are vile and the Republicans truly are spineless. And Trump hasn’t exactly been his best either, though he’s been doing a great job in many areas). But regardless of the folly, the sins and the evils of Man, we can always rest in the Hands of the Lord.
 
O, Lord, thank you for the goodness that You have shown us thus far and the mercies that You have given us. I pray to You that You will forgive us of our sins, those of us who repent of them and beg for forgiveness. I pray that You will comfort the troubled, feed the hungry, employ the financially distraught and allow for the whole world to recognize the evils of communism, both in China and in general, as it is antithetical to Your Word and Your Teachings.
 
Lord, please bring this nation to its knees, not in defeat but in repentance of its iniquities and its wrongdoings in Your Sight. Please give us wisdom to tackle this virus as effectively as possible with as little collateral damage done as possible. In Jesus’ name, amen.
 
I know that I don’t usually have full-on prayers on here, but the present situation has brought me closer to God (not that I wasn’t before, but I can always get closer still) and I believe it does warrant supplication from the Lord, of course, with thankfulness and acknowledgement of what good God has done for us so far. We should pray in times of trouble and in times of success; in times of sadness and in times of great joy.
 
I hope this is what the vast majority of people are/will be doing, so that we may get closer to God.
 
Psalm 9:10
“And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.”