The K-Shaped Recession
One of the things that is really freaking me out about the current situation is the economic state of the country. I'm now at a point that I've (consciously) lived through multiple recessions - the recession in the early 90s, when the "bubble burst" at the end of the millennium, the Great Recession, and now. But now is...strange.
I am pretty shielded, commonly, from recessions. My dad was a mortician and my mom in healthcare, so any recessions when I grew up didn't really affect us (people still get sick; people still die). I have worked in just about every job, in either public health or education, and those areas tend to be recession resilient*
* I HATE the term 'recession-proof', because I do not firmly believe any occupation or segment of the community is truly 'recession proof'. The old theory used to be "bars are recession proof" - well, the weirdness of this recession is showing us THAT is wrong.
This recession is odd and terrifying in a way. I'm not directly affected, again. I haven't, up until now, lost a job or had any major impact on my income. The most annoying part of this recession is that education has stagnated, so finding employment in education is just....tough. But I'm at a place where I would prefer to have another job; by the grace of God, I don't need another job.
However, in past recessions, while I haven't been directly affected, people in my orbit were - constantly. I hate friends in service industries lose their jobs because of slowdown, I've had middle income and higher income friends laid off. Normally there is some "two degrees of separation" situation in my regular life. So, I'm secondarily affected by a recession.
Not in this one; no one who is in my tight orbit is impacted. No jobs lost; almost everyone I know has switched to telework. Salaries are the same. People are saving money. I've saved more money this year than I have in nearly a decade.
I have to stretch quite a bit to actually find someone who is directly impacted. Like an acquaintance. That's strange to me.
And the thing is, I know people are suffering. But really I only know it because the news tells me so. Stats tell me so. But I really don't see it. And it puts me in this weird, very weird place, where I cannot conceptualize the people I see on the street as struggling. I assume everyone is okay. But they aren't... lots of people aren't. Seeing a table that shows me that the average person in my income bracket saved about 7000 extra dollars this year doesn't help to make me even (slightly) amenable to what others are going through. I just wish I had a better grasp.