This is What you Get When you Shut Down the Economy

Nearly 20% of renters in America are behind on their payments (cnbc.com)

• The typical delinquent renter now owes $5,600, being nearly four months behind on their monthly payment, according to a new analysis. This also includes utilities and late fees.
• In total, an astounding $57.3 billion is owed by just more than 10 million renters.

It gets worse:

About 18% renters in America, or around 10 million people, were behind in their rent payments as of the beginning of the month.

It is far more than the approximately 7 million homeowners who lost their properties to foreclosure during the subprime mortgage crisis and the ensuing Great Recession. And that happened over a five-year period.

I’ve been saying this for 8 months. We have to get the economy going again, even if it increases risk of exposure to COVID-19. The collateral damage here is mind-boggling. Not just evictions, but death, murder, depression, drug addiction, domestic abuse, the list goes on and on.

I believe our lockdowns will eventually end up costing us trillions of dollars in economic shortfalls and spiraling healthcare costs. And probably tens of millions of deaths.

It’s not worth it.