Living at the Bottom and Payscale

 I sat last week and imaged my pay-status in 1978 (the first real year in the Air Force).  

I made roughly $450 a month for the whole year....totaling out at around $4,100 for the year if you took out state tax, federal tax and social security. That was it.  Luckily, I had the chow hall for all my food necessities and the barracks room for my quarters.

Welfare status?  Well....no.  I admit....it wasn't much on pay, and you limited your lifestyle a good bit.  

All things considered, I did ok with $4,400 a year.  

Inflation factor calculating for today?  The same amount today would equal $1,600 roughly.

Rush Rules: #33: There Will Always Be a Poor People

 With the passing of Rush Limbaugh, I will admit at various times (particularly in the 1989 to 1992 era), I listened to his talk-radio show a good bit.  In the past decade....maybe four hours in an entire year.  I tended to agree with around 60-to-70 percent of what he said, but had some serious reservations on things.

There's this list of Rush 'truths', and from this list.....the one I disagreed with a great deal was #33 (There will always be a poor people).

I'm a capitalist.  If you measured my enthusiasm for the 'art'....it's maxing out at 9.9 (out of ten).  

I'm a believer that where you start in life does not mean you are stuck there for the rest of your life.

It's an odd thing....you'd expect some PhD guy to go and get a hired-hand listing for a McDonalds in Chattanooga, Tennessee for 1981, and track to see where these folks forty years later are.  My humble belief is that 70-percent did move up and develop well-to-do lives (going beyond poor status).  

I might also agree that 5-percent of that group probably still work at McDonalds today, and still run the French Fry business, or run the front-counter.  These are people without aspirations or willing nature to get ahead.

But no one ever seems to go back ten years....twenty years....or thirty years, to see where fryer-guy or the milkshake-guy went.  

If Rush meant a lesser-class people will always exist?  Then I might agree with that angle....because we don't have a need for sixteen-million rocket-scientists, or twelve--million electrical engineers.  

I just don't buy the concept that a 16-year-old kid gets some thought-process that delivering pizzas is fine work for the next fifty years, or running the counter at Burger King. 

Numbers Story

 Back around mid-December, I was reading a piece from a guy who had to fly (no choice) to a funeral on the other side of the country.  

He'd been a regular flyer up until spring of 2020, and this Covid-19 business had chilled him/wife/family enough....that it was a no-go situation.

So this guy reviewed his local airport (maybe 20-percent of the normal traffic walking around as before), the connecting airport (same story), and the end-destination airport (same story).  

Food stands were marginally operating.  Bars were about the only place in full function.  Fantastic speed through the TSA security points because they were fully manned. 

I noticed in this morning's news....a report was issued, and they said 2020's numbers were about the same as 1984.

For the whole year of 2020....368-million passengers across the US.  A year prior (2019)?  922.6-million.  Here's the one thing to consider....we really didn't start the lock-down until you get to the end of March.  So for the first quarter of 2020....those numbers were normal.  They didn't divide the report up, but I would guess that almost half of the 368-million occurred in the first quarter of 2020.

What are the consequences here?

Airports and airport businesses were built to turn profits.  They aren't doing it.

The operations landscape requires x-number of people buying tickets and paying taxes.  Well....presently, x-number is probably 30-to-40 percent of the norm.  So the tax income isn't occurring.

The people in the background?  The ones that ran the airport Asia food stands in Detroit, or ran the airport sports bar in Chicago, or the airport gift shop in Tulsa?  If they are open....they probably run with 50-percent manpower, or close by 6 PM (instead of 10 PM in 2019's landscape). 

People openly receptive to travel?  I would suggest that most would prefer to stay within a 500-mile circle of their house, and just drive their car rather than travel two hours by air to reach NY City or Vegas.  To what extent?  It wouldn't surprise me if two-thirds of regular travelers have become this way.

Recovering in 2021?  How so?  Where is there evidence that people see some exit door to the epidemic?  This vaccination business?  It's hard to find anyone who wants to 'promise' absolute protection against Covid-19, if you get the vaccination.  

I'm going to predict this....that the airport numbers for 2021 probably won't go above 450-million by the end of the year, and it settles there for 2022 as well.  It settles there....a less-than-bold new era....new marginal realities....and some false sense of returning to normal.