California policy killing business & jobs - poor, minorities, immigrants most harmed

[C C]

Cynical Sindee: Insanity is voting the same way over and over again and expecting different results.

(Golden State community) People are desperate: California shutdown pushes businesses to breaking point
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020...king-point

EXCERPTS: California’s new stay-at-home order is a desperate attempt to contain the fast-spreading virus as hospitals in the statenear capacity. The virus has already infected close to 1.5 million Californians and killed more than 20,500, and officials and epidemiologists say Covid has become so prevalent that activities that were relatively safe before now constitute more risk. But for many businesses already reeling from the state’s first lockdown in March, the new restrictions will have an exacting economic toll. That impact is bound to exacerbate an already towering wealth gap between the state’s rich and poor.

During its first shutdown, California was hit with record unemployment, shooting from 5.5% to 16.4% in the first two months of the pandemic, with more than 2.6 million jobs lost. California’s coffers, however, have come out better than expected through the difficult year, bolstered by high-wage earners who were largely unaffected and, in some cases, thrived during the crisis.

Low-wage workers employed in the sectors most affected by the restrictions – the once vibrant dining, entertainment and tourism industries – bore the brunt of the downturn. [...] Meanwhile, experts warn that many jobs lost this year won’t just reappear once the pandemic ends. “There have been some winners but many more losers from this economically,” said Mark Duggan, a director at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. “The scarring effects are going to be real,” he said. “It is amplifying inequalities. A hell of a lot of people in California are really struggling –and it’s going to get harder.”

Duggan said that people who thought they might be able to return to their jobs after the crisis were being forced to seek new opportunities. He does not think the bulk of lost restaurant, leisure, and hospitality jobs will come back anytime soon.

State data released in August showed that close to half of all California small businesses were at risk of shutting down because of the pandemic. Minority-owned establishments were disproportionately affected, the survey concluded, with the number of businesses owned by African Americans dropping by 41%, Latino-owned businesses by 32%, and Asian-owned businesses by 25%. Roughly 36% of immigrant-owned businesses also went under... (MORE - details)

[Yazata]

Speaking of California business...

Oracle, the huge database software company, has announced that it's moving its headquarters from the San Francisco Peninsula to Texas. So is Hewlett Packard's Enterprise division. And some guy named Elon Musk has sold all his California homes and has said that he's moving to Texas too. He doesn't just have that Boca Chica thing happening there (very close to his heart) but he has also announced that Tesla is building a new factory just outside of Austin.

I think that taxes, astronomical cost of living and excessive regulation are among the reasons for the growing exodus.

One advantage that the San Francisco Bay Area has had for decades is that it's so attractive to young 20-somethings just out of college. Lots of jobs and ways to get rich in start-ups, lots of young people like them with a thriving singles scene, kind of an anything-goes social climate and lots and lots of bars, restaurants, cafes and alternative entertainment venues. It's the perfect place for kids to continue their college lifestyle. So employers get a college educated workforce willing to work for peanuts if they get shares in a new business that might (conceivably) make them rich someday.

But covid has killed the restaurants, bars and live entertainment. Kids aren't even supposed to gather in parks. Meanwhile the cost of living is still unbearable.

It's a fickle market, based on style as much as anything else, so if the Bay Area starts to be seen as yesterday's news and Austin or someplace becomes known as the new hotspot, then... There's already venture capital in other places.

[Zinjanthropos]

Speaking of California business...

Oracle, the huge database software company, has announced that it's moving its headquarters from the San Francisco Peninsula to Texas. So is Hewlett Packard's Enterprise division. And some guy named Elon Musk has sold all his California homes and has said that he's moving to Texas too. He doesn't just have that Boca Chica thing happening there (very close to his heart) but he has also announced that Tesla is building a new factory just outside of Austin.

I think that taxes, astronomical cost of living and excessive regulation are among the reasons for the growing exodus.

One advantage that the San Francisco Bay Area has had for decades is that it's so attractive to young 20-somethings just out of college. Lots of jobs and ways to get rich in start-ups, lots of young people like them with a thriving singles scene, kind of an anything-goes social climate and lots and lots of bars, restaurants, cafes and alternative entertainment venues. It's the perfect place for kids to continue their college lifestyle. So employers get a college educated workforce willing to work for peanuts if they get shares in a new business that might (conceivably) make them rich someday.

But covid has killed the restaurants, bars and live entertainment. Kids aren't even supposed to gather in parks. Meanwhile the cost of living is still unbearable.

It's a fickle market, based on style as much as anything else, so if the Bay Area starts to be seen as yesterday's news and Austin or someplace becomes known as the new hotspot, then...  There's already venture capital in other places.

And if livestock got that jittery they’d say an earthquake’s coming.

[C C]

Locked-down California experiences meltdown statistics from super surge
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/23...rge-450315

EXCERPTS: California has had some of the toughest restrictions in the country to combat the coronavirus, from a complete ban on restaurant dining to travel quarantines and indoor gym closures. It hasn't been enough. America's most populous state has become one of the nation's worst epicenters for the disease, setting new records for cases, hospitalizations and deaths almost every day.

Things are so bad in Southern California that some patients are being treated in hospital tents, while doctors have begun discussing whether they need to ration care. The turnabout has confounded leaders and health experts. They can point to any number of reasons that contributed to California's surge over the past several weeks. But it is hard to pinpoint one single factor — and equally hard to find a silver bullet.

It couldn't come at a worse time, given that the Christmas and New Year's holidays have arrived, and officials fear that residents are even more likely to travel and congregate than during the Thanksgiving period that propelled the current trends. [...] By any calculation, California’s outbreak numbers are stunning. With rapid, logarithmic growth, the virus has become so prevalent it’s simply become easier to spread.

[...] Assembly member Jordan Cunningham (R-Templeton) argued that the state’s attempt to “shut down types of human interaction without seeing if that’s effective” was creating a backlash of sorts — “driving people to higher-risk activity” like gathering indoors at home, rather than places like restaurants. “The public health officials have lost credibility with a huge section of the populace. They’re just tuning them out now,” Cunningham said. “The goalposts are moving all the time. … People are fed up with it and they don’t think it makes any sense, and they’re not wrong.”

[...] even residents in the San Francisco Bay Area, which has had many of the strictest rules all year, have let down their guard to some degree and have seen numbers shoot upward. For some, the decision to ignore the orders may come down to the survival of their businesses and the ability to put food on the table. Many essential workers and people living in disadvantaged areas throughout the state have had few options but to continue working... (MORE - details)

RELATED (scivillage): California has from 27% to almost 50% of the US homeless population

[Yazata]

Today (June 15, 2021) was supposed to be California Reopening Day, when the state ended its covid restrictions. Regarding masks, they are no longer officially required for vaccinated individuals except in a few specific settings such as public transit, nursing homes, homeless shelters and k-12 schools. Bars, restaurants and retail are allowed to reopen indoors to full capacity, sporting events are once again allowed etc.

https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCD...k-Like.pdf

Except that here in the Bay Area, I've noticed no visible difference. The mask fetish is still going strong. At least half the people that I see walking outdoors are still wearing masks, even when they are walking by themselves. All the stores that I stopped by today still require customers to be wearing masks in order to enter and be served.

Despite all the talk about "following the science", I think that it's mostly virtue-signalling. Masks are symbolic of membership in some kind of social movement, even if membership was mandatory. People in masks are "us", as opposed to the horrible "them".

https://twitter.com/davidhogg111/status/...3808754688

[Syne]

Superstition masquerading as following the science. Just children with their security blankets.

[C C]

[...] Except that here in the Bay Area, I've noticed no visible difference. The mask fetish is still going strong. At least half the people that I see walking outdoors are still wearing masks, even when they are walking by themselves. All the stores that I stopped by today still require customers to be wearing masks in order to enter and be served.

Despite all the talk about "following the science", I think that it's mostly virtue-signalling. Masks are symbolic of membership in some kind of social movement, even if membership was mandatory. People in masks are "us", as opposed to the horrible "them".

https://twitter.com/davidhogg111/status/...3808754688

Maybe this is the dawn of a kind of Puritan dress code for them, if the masks alone don't suffice in the long run.

The "saved" white leftangelicals do need to approach clothing in a way that distinguishes and socially distances them from the unrepentant New Sinners (those still retaining white privileged status and basking in white supremacy). A dress code may also help protect naïve Zoomers from sexually transmitted demons.

Leftangelical men could reject belts and use suspenders like Amish men, and the women could wear head coverings. The latter could also be a gesture of communal goodwill and unity with Muslim women.

Why, over time, the masks might evolve into veils and ultimately into burkas. What's a more fitting statement for politically warding away virus spirits and socially distancing one's self from the evil Western tradition than covering the whole body?

[Syne]

Maybe this is the dawn of a kind of Puritan dress code for them, if the masks alone don't suffice in the long run.

The "saved" white leftangelicals do need to approach clothing in a way that distinguishes and socially distances them from the unrepentant New Sinners (those still retaining white privileged status and basking in white supremacy). A dress code may also help protect naïve Zoomers from sexually transmitted demons.

Well, certainly they need to expunge their wardrobes of anything that may have originated in a non-white culture, as that's the sin of cultural appropriation. That goes for style in general, including hair styles (dreadlocks, afros, etc.).