" scarceness is not some unifier , in my belief . It corrupts people and pull the great unwashed aside , even people who care for each other . My parent were divorced , but had always present a joined front . During the financial crisis , my dad ’s fellowship go under , and that united front completely fell aside . "
From145%tariffsto mountinginflationto $10 cartons ofeggs, I feel a bit like we’re hurdling toward financial ruin (aka a big ole recession) — and I’m not the only one.
Onr/AskReddit, userzenitanhwarecentlyasked: “What’s something about a recession that people don’t truly understand until they experience it?” Here’s how some folks answered:
1.“In knowledge fields, which is a lot of the USA right now, two groups get really fucked during a recession: those entering the workforce and those about to exit. The new workers with no experience are outcompeted by those who have experience. An experienced worker is dollar-for-dollar more effective. The old workers have the most pay and are easy cost-cutting targets because they were a few years from retirement anyway. They also are now needing to use a pension that may be tied up in the market but aren’t yet able to collect social security.”
2.“No ordinary person wins during a recession. We all get fucked to varying degrees. The rich win, though. They buy things up on the cheap and walk away from floundering companies with fat bonuses.”
— so_not
3.“People lose their jobs, sure. You expect that. But people lose their homes, too. And some of those people have no safety net, nowhere else to go. Those people may wind up living in their car, at a shelter, or worse. And it’s because of policy choices by elected officials somewhere.”
— limbodog
4.“Seeing your friends and coworkers be pulled into the corner meeting room by HR, only to emerge 10 minutes later with a 1000-yard stare as they grab a box and put their pictures of their kids, plants, and other stuff into it.”
5.“The jobs are just gone. Like, not the jobs you’re qualified for and generally work in are gone — that can happen pretty much anytime — but like, there are no job openings anywhere. As a result, a lot of migration happens. People move around looking for jobs, or they move places where their money will go further.”
— ryguymcsly
6.“How slow it starts, and then how fast it cascades.”
— EmperorKira
" I have to concord . People hear ' recession ' and expect contiguous consequences . When those consequence do n’t happen as tight , they often tend to need , ' What recession ? ' It ’s a slow trickle ; one aspect of craft / logistics gets impacted , then the next . Eventually , you hit the tipping point , and it all hit businesses at once , calendar month later . "
— vasaryo
7.“Unavailability of things. You think you have everything until you need something and realize you now have no way to get it, and if you can find it, the price has inflated to the point where you have to carefully weigh if it is worth it.”
8.“Scarcity is not some unifier, in my opinion. It corrupts people and pulls people apart, even people who care for each other. My parents were divorced, but had always presented a united front. During the financial crisis, my dad’s company went under, and that united front completely fell apart.”
— thebrokencup
9.“People will argue endlessly for the entirety of the recession whether we are actually/still in the recession.”
— theoryofgames
10.“The housing foreclosures. People leaving their keys in the mailbox in my neighborhood and moving out west abruptly. The notices in the doors and windows. Where I lived, there was one foreclosed house every couple of houses. The ghost town feeling was wild.”
11.“It’s temporary for the lucky, permanent for the many.”
— dumbasstupidbaby
" Some masses ’s lives will be destroy , and they will never recover , just because they were unlucky . They will see no mercy and always be say it was their own defect , that they lost everything , despite doing everything they were reckon to . "
— Maximum_Pound_5633
12.“There will be a ton of people, generally white collar or skilled tradesmen in their late 40s or early 50s, whose careers and financial trajectory will be completely destroyed. They will never get jobs that paid as much as they were making ever again, and in fact, will many times get knocked into minimum wage jobs.”
— TheIowan
13.“How everyone feels it, but while you’re experiencing it, it feels like the world is going on as normal. People are still eating at restaurants. People are still going to Disney World. And you’re sending out your 100th resume for the day, wondering how you’re going to get dinner.”
14.“How quickly a micro business you’ve spent years building can disappear.”
— WearyEnthusiasm6643
15.“Knowing we will never fully go back to where we were as a society. The cuts made in the name of a recession never come back 100%. If you manage to keep your job, you’ll be doing the job of three during the recession and the job of two afterward, at best. Good businesses will crumble, but mega corps will ride it out and take the market share on the rebound.”
— BuddyBiscuits
16.“You are not going to fucking believe how hard it’s going to be to get a job. Hardly anyone will be hiring for years on end. On the rare occasion that someone can’t avoid hiring, you’re gonna be looking at 500 applicants for one empty position. You won’t be able to get a gig at McDonald’s because they can get someone with 20 years of experience and full availability who will work for less than you.”
17.“That many people will be brainwashed into blaming everybody for their lot in life except the people actually causing it.”
— MangoSalsa89
18.“I hope you love your job because if you don’t get laid off, you’re going to be working there for many more years with no raises and no new job prospects on the horizon.”
— Galacticwave98
19.“Hobbies dry up. Even if you keep a job, not everyone will have the money to do the hobby you like. As a result, the hobby shops close. I was an avid paintballer in the 2000s, and that sport took 10 years to recover. The mountain bike specialist in my town closed up shop. The race track down the road went under.”
20.“Life gets put on hold for a lot of people. Young adults living on their own and hoping to buy a house soon instead move back in with their parents. Vacations get canceled. People postpone or cancel their weddings because someone is unemployed or the money dried up. People hold off on having kids because the money isn’t there.”
— Doctor – Spaceman
21.“Companies will use it as an excuse long after it’s over to give paltry raises and bonuses, giving a line that you’re lucky to get anything at all.”
— WabiSabi0912
22.“I’m worried that people aren’t prepared for the loneliness of having no money to go out with friends. A lot of things are low-cost or free, but eventually, you just can’t make it work. Some friends are understanding, and others aren’t. Resentment is easy to build up. Some formerly intensely close friend groups of mine never really recovered.”
23.“That people can do everything ‘right.’ Have more than the suggested amounts in the bank and be debt-free, but be at the wrong place at the wrong time and end up bankrupt and homeless without having done anything wrong. Just one failure around them, a business, a bank, a job, a medical emergency, and it can all come crashing down and burn through any prep you may have done.”
— cyrand
24.“That people start having to sell their possessions to make ends meet.”
— AdministrativeBank86
25.“The constant, unending, 24/7 stress of it all. If you keep your job, you’re stressed every minute about losing it. If you lose your job, you’re constantly trying to find a job that isn’t there. You can’t even get hired at Burger King. One obviously sucks worse than the other, but either way, you are on high alert for months on end, and it is exhausting.”
— bobbito
26.“Military enlistment numbers increase.”
27.“Municipal services are cut. Stuff sales tax pays for. Libraries. Transit. Food pantries. The stuff people need most when they lose their job goes away at the same time. Then a year later, property tax assessments come in lower, and you get cuts in schools, roads, and trash services too.”
— thebruns
28.“Medicaid gets cut. Kids and their entire families don’t get health or dental care. Often those are families fleeing domestic violence, surviving a major disaster or life event, a dad died, or they just didn’t get the help they needed to barely scrape by. For those of us lucky enough to live in cities with free healthcare programs, the wait is a long time. I work at a homeless shelter for kids, and in 2008ish, we saw a lot of families with no health insurance.”
— redpatcher
29.“All the partial construction that just sits.”
30.“That it snowballs. People lose their jobs, so others are afraid of losing their jobs. Both groups stop spending money. That causes businesses to suffer, so people lose their jobs, and people spend less, and on and on. Especially at certain tipping points.”
— Yourdjentpal
31.“How quickly your average family can go from feeling like a secure middle-class family to being absolutely destitute. It takes most people about a month.”
— Thursdaze420
32.“Expensive cars loading up with a box of food at a distribution center because you can’t eat an Audi, and no one wants to buy it for what they owe.”
33.And finally, “Being stuck. You can’t move jobs, you can’t sell your house, you can’t change locations because of the first two. People end up with crazy commutes because they’re stuck in a house too far from the only job they could get. Remote work makes it slightly easier now, but there will be fierce competition for those remote positions.”
— desertsidewalks
