JACOBIN MAGAZINE -- Julia is 27. She worked her way up to being a bartender for the last four years while also attending San Francisco State University. She had finally gotten the hours she wanted, working nights. She graduated with two degrees, one in Anthropology and one in Cinema. Her goal was to become a production assistant and bartend on the side.
Julia, an ex-bartender in San Jose, has been jobless for eight months. “Obviously, that’s all gone,” she told me. “So my whole plan is gone for the future right now.
Like many others, Julia was able to subsist and pay rent and bills while enhanced federal benefits were being disbursed. Now without the extra $600 weekly, her benefits have dropped to $120 after taxes. She moved back home with her mom, who’s at high risk for COVID. This meant that once her bar reopened, she didn’t feel it was safe to go back and endanger her mother. Social distancing protocols weren’t in place there. “Everything was a mess. It was a really half-assed plan to get reopened.”