He is correct. You can’t hollow out the bottom of your economy and expect the rest to just be untouched. It just cannot and will not work that way. Unfortunately, neither progressives nor the right understand the economy nor complex dynamic systems and how they fracture, so they don’t recognize the calamity that is still approaching. (And progressives really don’t understand how the economy functions at all.)
We’re in a state now that no matter what happens with the coronavirus — even if we develop a vaccine in the next year — a large depression is a fait accompli of our past and present actions.
The economy is large. There has been a shockwave created. This surging wave will inevitably cause a tsunami on a far shore. That shore is the top half of the economy. Because the economy is large, that tsunami takes a while to arrive. I’d say in 3-4 months things will get substantially worse, and then in fall as the second major wave of the pandemic hits many people in the US will actually start to starve.
Many of those in the top 10 percent will fall out of it. (Though, definitionally, there will always be a top 10 percent.) Poverty will increase. Food insecurity will be known by many who’ve never had to contemplate such a thing.
Later, I’ll write a post on how to realistically prepare. Summer will be mild for the virus and for food shortages. Now is the time to start. Believe me or not, wouldn’t you rather be prepared than left with no options?