Wisdom Through Humility: Lessons from the Covid-19 Crisis

By Pete Bowen and Bailey Bowen
I learned a few important lessons last week that some might find helpful.

On March 17, government-ordered Covid-19 shutdowns reduced my consulting business income to $0 overnight.

The same week, two of my three daughters were laid off from their jobs.

At the time, we were told that the shutdown would be a couple weeks. It would be tough and painful, but we would get through it.

Though I had no income, we had enough savings to go 6 months on a bare-bones budget.

Besides, the government promised help for businesses like mine to get through it all.

I applied for unemployment and tried to apply for the PPP loans the government promised.

We weren’t too concerned. We felt comfortable that our savings could carry us past the crisis.

Then the shutdown kept getting extended. First to a month. Then 8-12 weeks.

At the same time, the government promises started falling flat.

As a sole-owner LLC, I had to wait until Friday, April 10, to apply for a PPP loan. I didn’t get access to an online application until Tuesday night, April 15th.

By then, however, the PPP money was already gone.

Unemployment? I got denied for several reasons including that I had “excessive earnings” of $145 one week when I took a 35-minute client phone call.

We are genuinely grateful for the $2,400 federal money we did receive. Here in Orange County, California, that’s about 10 days of living expenses for a family of four at the low-income level.

Then the shutdown kept getting longer. Three months, then six months and now maybe 12-18 months.

Last week, we realized that our savings are going to run out long before our political leaders tell us the economy will reopen.

Government ordered shutdowns took away all our income.

There is no PPP money for us. No EIDL money. No unemployment money. No business income for as long as a year.

We’re in trouble. We have to compete with 25 million other Americans to find jobs that generate a combined $50 an hour for us to make the low-income level.

My family is not alone in this.

A school-teacher/hairdresser friend of mine is already part of a rising black market economy. She’s a long-term substitute teacher who is only getting $800/month in unemployment because her UI base rate was too low as a substitute teacher.

How is she going to make her $2,000 rent on May 1? How is she going to buy food?

If you were in her situation, would you cut people’s hair in their homes despite the government guidelines?

A good friend owns an OC tourism business. It looks like they are approved for PPP money and they are grateful. It will help them get by through the end of June.

The problem is that Disneyland may not re-open until August or September.

There is no apparent mechanism by which they can last through August—much less September or October—which is how long it will take for them to get their business back up. If they go out of business, it will be very difficult for them to restart it.

The wife of another friend beat stage 4 cancer two years ago. With a compromised immune system, she is high risk for Covid-19. Nevertheless, she is working in a grocery store because their fear of Covid-19 is outweighed by their need for the income.

These are all educated, upper-middle class people running successful businesses until the government shutdowns ended their work.

All of us have been willing to make big personal and professional sacrifices to help address this terrible pandemic.

But when politicians blithely talk about shutdowns lasting 6 or 12 or 18 months, and government help lasts 2.5 months or doesn’t come at all, you are hit in the face with a new reality.

Our six months of savings went from more-than-covering-the-shutdown to it’s-going-to-fall-way-short.

How am I going to feed and house my family when our savings run out?

My friends whose companies received millions in PPP loans explain to me,