 So, aside from the obvious health risks that COVID-19 poses, we're starting to see how this global pandemic is having cascading effects on other areas, right? It's not just impacting the health and well-being of Americans and human beings generally speaking. It is taking its toll on the economy. It's taking its toll on working people who are missing work and now worried about paying rent on April 1st. It's having a psychological toll. It's causing excess anxiety. So there's a lot that this is going to, a lot of issues that this is going to create for us and kind of understanding what's happening is really crucial so we can respond accordingly. Now I want to share an article from the Huffington Post because what they show is that at least in one industry this is going to potentially be devastating for workers. Now we don't necessarily know how this is going to affect different industries but at least when it comes to hospitality. It's not looking good according to one union. So as Dave Jamison of HuffPost reports, the leading labor union for hospitality workers said Wednesday that it expects 80 to 90% of its 300,000 members to be out of work due to the coronavirus outbreak. The estimates from Unite here illustrate the staggering economic damage inflicted on the service sector by the pandemic. The union's members, a majority of whom are women, tend to work in hotels, airports and casinos, all businesses that have been hammered by closures and a precipitous drop in demand. On a call with reporters Wednesday, union officials said employees in the hospitality industry are facing an unprecedented crisis and that members of Congress and the White House need to put workers at the center of any rescue packages. Detailer, the union's president panned the emergency paid leave bill past Saturday by the Democratic-controlled House as quote, completely ridiculous, saying it had huge car belts and did not go far enough in helping workers. He also said the plan being floated to cut Americans up to two $1,000 checks would be insufficient given that each such payment wouldn't cover a month's rent in most cities. They've met with the titans of industry and that's great. But we all know what we face right now, Taylor said, referring to the members of Congress and the White House, I'm very worried that the American worker is not at the table, just American industry. Companies in the airline, hotel and gaming industries have been asking federal officials for help and the White House has been reportedly considering aid such as low or zero interest loans or tax deferrals. Taylor said any bailouts would need to be done in tandem with increased unemployment insurance, paid sick leave, money for food stamps and housing and guarantees on continued health care for workers who lose their jobs. Quote, we need to get workers bailed out and secure, he said, and I couldn't have put it better myself. As these industries, you know, casinos, airlines ask for government assistance, welfare, socialism, whatever you want to call it. Workers are the ones who should be at the center of our concerns, not corporations, but working people. Working people are the ones who are going to bear the brunt of this disaster, this global pandemic. Because people are currently worried, what am I going to do? Am I going to be able to pay my rent? That's due April 1st. Am I going to be able to buy food? How long is this going to last? People shouldn't have to deal with that anxiety on top of the anxiety that already comes with just dealing with the global pandemic, right? We should be doing everything in our power to make things easy for working people so they don't have to worry. And it's a little unfortunate or a lot unfortunate actually that we haven't really been talking seriously about paid sick leave and healthcare and basic income until now. Like I said this in a previous video, but I think it's important to note it again. It shouldn't have taken a global pandemic to get us to actually acknowledge the importance of workers. But you see, this is something that capitalists have to deal with. They exploit their workers until there's nothing left to exploit. But the problem is that capitalists, the ownership class, they still need us to buy their products. They still need working people to go out and stimulate the economy. But when they can't do that, guess what? Everything collapses. The entire system implodes because capitalism can only function if people have purchasing power, if people actually are able to stimulate the economy, so to speak. You can ask for tax cuts for the rich. You can have the government bail out all of these companies. But at the end of the day, if working people can't purchase airline tickets, if working people aren't able to buy the goods and services offered by capitalists, then the system can't sustain itself. It collapses. So that's why we're starting to see even Republicans float solutions like universal basic income temporarily. It's why they're talking about paid sick leave. Because you can't have a capitalist system if you just completely eliminate workers' purchasing power. And this pandemic is so serious that it does threaten to do just that, which is why for the first time in a very long time, we see bipartisan support for bills aimed at helping people. Now we can argue that these bills don't go far enough. I absolutely agree with that sentiment. In fact, the House bill did carve out a big loophole for large multinational corporations and Nancy Pelosi is trying to do everything in her power to make sure nothing gets through unless it's means tested, which is a joke because you can means test it on the back end if you just tax millionaires in large multinational corporations more. You don't need to make it harder for working class people to apply for social safety net programs, make it universal and just tax the rich. So, I mean, there's issues, right? Congress is still a clown show, but I will say that the fact that they're seriously considering actually passing things that benefit the working people, it goes to show you that they know how serious this is. They know how serious this is. And again, you know, there's still going to be people doing political theater, Rand Paul tried to block this because at least the Senate version because, you know, there was no way to pay for it. So I mean, there's going to be people in Congress who are just they don't they don't realize the damage that they're causing. But the fact that both Republicans and Democrats are realizing that they've got to do something, no matter how meager the response is, it shows you the gravity of this situation. So this is just one industry. This is the hospitality industry, but we don't know how other industries will be affected. So this is why when we're talking about bailouts, we have to focus on workers, not the corporations, because this country can survive if large multinational corporations go under. But if the American people aren't able to survive this, whether this storm our system cannot survive, it implodes. So I really hope that we do get a comprehensive package that ameliorates the fear of working class people that, you know, at a time when we're facing this global pandemic, they don't have to worry about paying to keep the lights on. They don't have to worry about paying rent. It's going to be taken care of because they have a government who's taking their tax dollars and finally it's going to benefit them at least when it comes to global pandemics, hopefully.