<story><title>Almost 60 percent of business closures are now permanent, new Yelp data shows</title><url>https://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/almost-60-percent-business-closures-are-now-permanent-new-yelp-n1240209</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>caeril</author><text>This reflects my personal view of the &amp;quot;real&amp;quot; economy. Nearly everyone around me is absolutely destitute. Meanwhile, equities are trading at all time highs. There is an enormous disconnect, at least in my specific area.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>eulers_secret</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m with you. I live in a very inexpensive apartment, where most people are low-income or on gov&amp;#x27;t subsidy, or both. I also walk my dog daily and interact with 3-5 different neighbors each day - so I have a view into their lives.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s bad here. I&amp;#x27;d say at least 1&amp;#x2F;3 have lost their jobs and are having a really hard time finding work. More uber&amp;#x2F;lyft signs have popped up in cars in the parking lot. One of my neighbors had to move their family of 3 from an already-small 2br to a 1br (2 kids). I don&amp;#x27;t know how they can make it work. There&amp;#x27;s more people who sit on the sidewalk curb and drink cheap beer and chain smoke. They&amp;#x27;re nice folks (I talk to them), but they can&amp;#x27;t find work.&lt;p&gt;On the flips side, anyone who can WFH is doing better than ever before. They save money by not driving, eating out, or doing the other things they&amp;#x27;d normally do. I&amp;#x27;ve also seen A LOT of brand new cars show up, presumably buying because of low interest rates. WFH folks seem happier than before.&lt;p&gt;The disparity between the haves and have-nots looks like it&amp;#x27;s been rapidly accelerating. If you always stay in the HN bubble, you won&amp;#x27;t see these people. They&amp;#x27;re &amp;#x27;invisible&amp;#x27;, but I assure you they are real. They need help, and they&amp;#x27;re not getting it. It&amp;#x27;s honestly very, very sad - it makes me sad. My empathy is on overdrive because it&amp;#x27;s so easy to see myself in that position. If I hadn&amp;#x27;t chosen tech, I&amp;#x27;d be right there with them with a 6-pack, Marlboros, and no hope.</text></comment>
<story><title>Almost 60 percent of business closures are now permanent, new Yelp data shows</title><url>https://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/almost-60-percent-business-closures-are-now-permanent-new-yelp-n1240209</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>caeril</author><text>This reflects my personal view of the &amp;quot;real&amp;quot; economy. Nearly everyone around me is absolutely destitute. Meanwhile, equities are trading at all time highs. There is an enormous disconnect, at least in my specific area.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>x86_64Ubuntu</author><text>The government a while back injected TRILLIONS into the stock market in a bid to keep the stock market afloat.  Acts like that have gone far to increase the difference in fortunes between main street and wall street.</text></comment>