I clung to the middle class as I aged. The pandemic pulled me under.

[Zorro]

We were on a busy D.C. street, waiting for the light to change, when my teenage daughter asked, out of nowhere, “Dad, what are you afraid of?” That might have been a cue for a heartwarming father-daughter conversation about overcoming life’s challenges. Nope. From my lizard brain, or from the primordial soup in my guts, came an answer I didn’t even consider, out of my mouth before I had a conscious thought of it.

“Being poor. That’s what I’m afraid of.” Then we crossed the street.

I keep returning to that exchange over the past few weeks, as my inbox fills with coronavirus-driven bad news. A paid speaking engagement in Texas? Canceled. Several days of work at an international conference? The organizers decided not to take the risk. A gig moderating a climate change conference in Chicago? Postponed, maybe until October. When I traveled as a reporter to health crises in Africa and Latin America in recent years, exposed to malaria, tuberculosis and pneumonia, I knew that if I got sick my health-care costs would be paid by my employer, as would any days I needed to recover. In 2010, covering the devastating Port-au-Prince earthquake in Haiti for PBS, I caught something that lingered when I got home, so I called in sick.

Now that I’m a gig worker over 60, “sick days” are simply salary-free days off. Even if work dries up, that $2,800-a-month health insurance bill still comes due on the first of the month. The electric company won’t take a podcast, a column or a television documentary as in-kind payment for kilowatt hours.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/04/30/i-clung-middle-class-i-aged-pandemic-pulled-me-under/

Ray Suarez @RaySuarezNews, was a senior correspondent for “PBS NewsHour” and host of the public radio show “America Abroad.” He co-hosts the program and podcast “WorldAffairs” for KQED-FM and the World Affairs Council. This article was supported by the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.

[empedocles]

1. Many of us, who don't feel it much now, have much to fear of the pandemic 2nd

wave - and the possible 2nd and 3rd downward economic waves.

[Laelth]

2. Hear! Hear! This is the reality many of us face. n/t

-Laelth

[BeyondGeography]

3. More honesty and openness in this piece

than you might come across in a year of newspaper reading. Searing, sad and all too real.

Highly rec’d.

[bobbieinok]

4. Ray Suarez was one of my most favorite commentators!! Haven't heard him in yrs

[Chainfire]

5. It is a good time

to be retired. My wife and I were discussing what bad shape we would have been in if this had come when we had two children in diapers and lived on a tight budget.

I really feel for the people who are struggling to keep their heads above water. I can even understand why people are demanding to go back to work. They are willing to risk their lives to support their families. It is hard to be logical or philosophical when the demand letters are piling up and you are digging change out of the sofa, or calculating what you can sell on eBay to buy food.

I have been through hard times, in my case, due to my own poor decisions; I know what it feels like. To have it thrust on you, when you have been doing your best would be even more difficult.

[appalachiablue]

6. A very honest and somewhat scary piece, surprised

Last edited Sun May 3, 2020, 01:03 PM - Edit history (1)

to see it was from Ray Suarez. I didn't even know he had left PBS.