Yeah, you nailed it Nicholas.
This pandemic is only getting worse between now and late March barring a miracle on a vaccine. I’ve watched my available work from home poker income deteriorate over the last couple months, and the timing coincides with a huge chunk of this country getting straight up fucked financially by the economy during the pandemic. We have nothing but incompetence in the White House and a wanton disregard for 90% of the country in the Senate, so that’s not getting much better anytime soon either.
Meanwhile, I was a dumbass under the illusion that my money spent the same as anyone else’s despite my profession. I made enough and had enough that I thought I had afforded myself a level of security in a selfish society and system that only values money. I figured I have a legal job, so once I can show the money, I’m going to get the treatment any self-employed independent contractor would get with similar income and savings. It’s not like I’m a criminal!
My apartment situation and house search made it clear to me that to the people who make those decisions, that’s exactly what I am to them. A hustler. A risk. Less than.
So I may need to come with a lot more than 20% down to ever buy a house. I had to jump through hoops to rent a townhouse.
So add it all up and it’s a fucked situation, and this feels like my best chance to protect myself beyond the next five months. If I wait 5 months and I’m no longer bankrolled for my games, I can’t let the rest of my roll dwindle, I’d have to jump into live 2/5 somewhere in a casino with way more people coming and going and way less financial upside, or find some other work.
I guess the alternative is finding a full-time work from home job at $20-25 per hour to tread water, but those don’t exactly grow on trees right now for poker pros with a huge resume gap.
That’s all best case. Let’s explore worst case. Vaccines don’t work, this is at least a 2-3 year thing and like 80% of us are getting it at least once. Trump wins, and his rhetoric and brutality go up a level. He forces blue states to reopen by refusing to give any aid to states that aren’t fully open. Herd immunity or bust. The incompetence in his administration slows the economic recovery.
RBG dies in the next few years, and the ACA goes away within 6 months - now with pre-existing conditions my healthcare goes from $400-500/mo to $1,600-2400/mo I’m guessing. It was $1,000-1,200 when I was 22, with only allergies and asthma. 12 years later add sleep apnea and a pandemic and inflation (which is worse in healthcare than overall) and who the fuck knows?
Meanwhile the fabric of our society is unraveling. Probably 1 in 3 times I drive someone blatantly runs a stop sign or red light right in front of me, and it’s only getting worse. I consider this a leading indicator of bad things to come. A lot of people are realizing this country is every man for himself who never knew it before, and that our unspoken societal contract is being replaced by “LOL fuck you.”
First it’s running stop signs, being rude to others, breaking little rules, etc. Then what? I don’t like to think about the answer.
In this game I can make enough in one night a week to not only pay my expenses but re-strengthen my financial position and mitigate some of the downside in a worst case scenario. I can also solidify a spot in a game that is recession proof because the drivers of the action are so absurdly wealthy. If things don’t go down the worst case path, within 1-3 years the landlords can all fuck off, and then my money will spend the same as anyone else’s.
If I do well in the game in October and Biden wins, and cases are going up or it’s not safe, maybe I back out for a while and revisit it later. But I expect cases to blow up in Nov-Feb, so this may be my last best shot.
So yeah it’s pessimism about the pandemic, the economy, American society and the very fabric of this country. It’s not optimism or feeling safe from COVID. It’s feeling unsafe from everything else.
