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Just talked to a guy in the park whose business was turned upside down in March. He figures he's lost over $100,000 this year, maybe more, plus he's living off his savings to survive. He said "people say, well you'll just make it back next year when things pick back up" ...
... "What they fail to realize is the money I didn't make this year, I'll never make again. And it's that way for everyone not making money this year." We talked about how these restrictions are exacerbating existing inequities and creating new ones.
He's one of the "luckier" ones in that he has savings (but why should the burden fall on his shoulders to use his savings to live while others have made their whole salary in 2020). But there are so many people less lucky than him, who are barely hanging on.
We talked about how devastated SF is going to be for a long time to come. How many of these businesses will never come back. How foolish it was to close outside dining when it wasn't what was causing spread and was providing income to so many people.
And we talked about the great divide: of those insulated in a secure job lecturing other people about how they should just willingly go along with restrictions regardless of whether they make sense or are based on data or will actually bring greater harm to people in the long run
and those who are literally experiencing trauma trying to figure out how to financially survive. He said people are going to have PTSD after this from what they've been put through (and then if they speak out are denounced as "deniers" or against "science").
This guy also said he had come close to losing friends in the spring (who all work steady jobs at big companies and could WFH) who basically told him to "suck it up" because "people are dying." Did they offer to part with their paychecks to help him? I'm sure you know the answer.
We also talked about how people who claimed to be liberal don't seem to care about how these policies are hurting the poor and middle class far more than the rich. Not only are they just going along with it, they're advocating for more. Were they never liberal to begin with?
He said "people say, 'well the government should just give everyone money.' What they don't realize is the government can't just give you what you would have made and it's not equal or anywhere near what you'd be able to make if you can just try to make it on your own."
(I think the misconception from people here who've never run a business is that a business can constantly pivot and adapt — even in a crazy pandemic and even with some restrictions — to figure out how to make the numbers work. The govt is one-size-fits-all and inefficent.)
Why have I shared this? Because every time I go out and talk to someone in public I find a fellow ally. From a spa owner I've gotten to know to the nail salon worker to this random business owner in the park, more and more people are questioning the logic of what we're doing.
And more and more people are seeing that they're not alone and that there is a growing number of voices who realize that this approach is untenable and destructive.
On that note, if you live in SF, sign our petition. https://www.change.org/p/mayor-london-breed-save-san-francisco-open-san-francisco?recruiter=1170287216&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=share_petition
On that note, if you live in SF, sign our petition. https://www.change.org/p/mayor-london-breed-save-san-francisco-open-san-francisco?recruiter=1170287216&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=share_petition
And if you don't agree, quit your current job and go run a business for a year where you're dependent on making money off it in order to pay for your life and report back to me in a year about whether or not it changed your mind.
