I have been wondering why I am hearing and seeing news about long lines at food banks and then it finally dawned on me today. It’s not because the grocery stores don’t have food, although there are some shortages on a few things — hey I got Stone crab claws Saturday at the Publix in Cary — we are not running out of food. What people are running out of is money. As I said in a previous rant, I am unaffected financially by this shutdown. However for at least 17 million people they don’t have money. Therefore it doesn’t matter to them how much food is in the groceries. They don’t have money to buy it.

I have heard that there are four mile long lines of cars waiting at a food bank in Las Vegas everyday and it makes sense. The majority of jobs in Vegas are in the service industry. They are cooks and waiters and card dealers etc., and are now unemployed. It is important that those of us who are relatively unaffected, and that would include the overwhelming majority of my friends who are obviously retired, to remember that they are in a better place than multiple millions of Americans. And that advice applies to everyone who is fortunate enough to still be working. You need to understand that economic toll of the shutdown, including the deaths that it will responsible for, will dwarf the deaths from this virus and that has to be an important factor in decisions going forward.