Anyone that was hoping for a quick recovery for the US economy can forget about that right now. Yes, many states are attempting to reopen, but in most cases it will be a multi-stage process that takes many months to complete. Meanwhile, fear of the pandemic is going to keep many Americans from conducting business as usual even after all of the restrictions have been finally lifted. Even now, many of the stores, restaurants and movie theaters that have reopened are seeing very, very few customers. Unfortunately, millions of small businesses are not going to be able to survive in such a depressed economic environment for very long. In America today, the rules of the game are slanted very heavily in favor of huge corporations and are slanted very heavily against small businesses. What would the United States look like if we lost half of our small businesses? The reason I ask that question is because approximately half of all small business owners in the entire country believe that they may soon be forced to close down for good. Not even during the great depression of the 1930s did we see anything like this. The big corporate giants with extremely deep pockets will be able to easily weather another round of lockdowns, but for countless small businesses this is literally a matter of life and death. Every day we are seeing new restrictions being implemented somewhere in the nation, and the politicians that are doing this are killing the hopes and dreams of countless small business owners. According to a recent alignable survey, 48% of US small business owners fear that they could be forced to, shut down permanently, in the very near future. Based on this week's alignable Q4 revenue poll of 9201 small business owners, 48% could shut down permanently before years end. In fact, this number jumped from 42% just two months ago, demonstrating how several factors have converged to devastate small businesses, pandemic resurgence, forced government reclosures, elevated customer fears, and a surgeon online shopping at Amazon and other national e-commerce giants. When a small business with only a few employees closes down forever, it never makes any national headlines. The last thing any small business needs right now is help from the government. What they all need is the government to leave us alone. The last thing I need is the help of fat lazy government bureaucrats sticking their nose in my business. But the truth is that small businesses are the heart and soul of our economy, and we are losing more of them with each passing day. Here are some quotes from actual small business owners that took part in the alignable survey. The pandemic has raised its ugly head again. I'm a caterer and I've had no work in November and my clients are canceling for deck. This is so sad. I have worked so hard to build my business the last 14 years. My business has gone from half a million to not even 200,000. This is devastating for any business. Pandemic closings are killing this country. My business is on hold, no art walks or gallery openings, and I can't even open my studio. Everything's online. Because therapeutic massage is so, up close and personal, I have only come back to about 40% of my previous clientele. I am afraid that the governor will shut us down again, which will be the end of my business. I also believe the ruling elite does not care about small businesses. How would you feel if you spent years putting everything you had into a small business in order to make it successful, only to have the politicians come along and completely destroy it? And every time a small business has to let workers go, it just makes the unemployment crisis in this country even worse. On Thursday, we learned that another 853,000 Americans filed new claims for unemployment benefits last week. First time claims for unemployment insurance totaled 853,000, an increase from the upwardly revised 716,000 total a week before, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been expecting 730,000. I have been warning that the new lockdowns would make the numbers worse, and that is precisely what is happening. And one expert that was interviewed by CNBC says that this is just the beginning. It looks like the unemployment losses are starting to stack up for the economy. It's not going to be a good month, said Chris Rupke, chief financial economist at MUFG Union Bank. You're starting the first week of the month on a bad note, and it's probably going to be all downhill from here. It feels like the lockdowns are intensifying. It's closer to reality for those forecasts that look for the economy to go negative in the first quarter. It is also important to remember that there are many Americans that have been unemployed for so long that they are no longer eligible to receive benefits. One of those long-term unemployed workers is 35-year-old Sarah Grume. For six months, she received unemployment benefits from the government, but those payments shrink as the programs wound down this summer. Since October, she's received nothing. I don't know what I'm going to do financially, she says. I'm applying to jobs and I've probably applied to over 100 at this point and I've had one interview. It's scary, she says. I don't know what's going to happen. What do you say to someone in her position? It's heartbreaking to hear stories like that, and more people are being laid off with each passing day. And as our new economic depression gets progressively deeper, an increasing number of Americans are becoming very desperate. In fact, many have already become so desperate that they are turning to shoplifting. Shoplifting is up markedly since the pandemic began in the spring and at higher levels than in past economic downturns, according to interviews with more than a dozen retailers, security experts and police departments across the country. But what's distinctive about this trend, experts say, is what's being taken, more staples like bread, pasta and baby formula. We're seeing an increase in low-impact crimes, said Jeff Zissner, chief executive of workplace security firm EGIS. It's not a whole lot of people going in, grabbing TVs and running out the front door. It's a very different kind of crime, its people stealing consumables and items associated with children and babies. Everywhere we look, our society is starting to break down all around us. Americans have filed new claims for unemployment benefits more than 70 million times this year, the number of homeless in New York City has reached an all-time record high, and civil unrest continues to erupt all over America. No matter what happens politically, conditions are going to continue to deteriorate as we head into 2021. Of course the mainstream media is boldly proclaiming that the new vaccines will pull us out of this tailspin and that life in America will soon return to normal. You can believe the mainstream media if you want, but in the end the hope that they are promising will turn out to be a complete mirage. I'm starting to believe that is exactly the goal of this lockdown, a complete re-enation of the privately held economy. Basically like someone swiping all the pieces off the chessboard mid-game. No more game. For any players. Total control. The world in the future is beginning to look like a cross between the novel 1984 and the movie V for Vendetta. The news reminds me of that movie a lot lately. This is the big reset. The giant culling of the sheep. This is just phase one. We have gone from the propaganda being, flatten the curve to, lock down until the vaccine is ready. The sheep will fight to get in line for the vaccine and be tracked like a chipped dog for the rest of their short lives. Why do you think they are making all medical employees out to be superheroes? Your neighbors and best friends will turn on you like piranhas if you resist the mandatory vaccine program, if they give you the option to resist. It is a good day to die. Die on your feet or live on your knees. Hello waits. This was the Nomad Economist. Please like, share, leave me a comment, subscribe. And please take some time to subscribe to my backup channels. I do upload videos there too. You'll find the links in the description box. You will also find a PayPal link if you want to make a donation. Thank you wholeheartedly to all those of you who have donated. Stay safe and healthy friends.