I will be sad if movie theaters do not survive Covid 19.

I love movie theaters. I love going to the movies, getting snacks, obtaining prized seats at the local IMAX to be blown away by a four story screen and digital surround. I love movie theater 3D, and eating ice cream in the cool dark while I know that outside it is sweltering and sunny. These are memories I have of movie theaters, and quite simply...I love them.

News broke yesterday that AMC theaters is probably not going to survive Covid. They are making essentially zero dollars during the pandemic, and they won't be able to open "business as usual" when all the green lights are go. And it also remains to be seen if even they were allowed to open "business as usual" if anyone would ever return to the theater in large enough numbers for them not to go extinct.

This is heartbreaking on many levels for me. I love movies, but I also know the realities of capitalism in America. It is difficult to make it in our country, because greed has continually increased rent and land values to a point that the only way a business can be successful is if they are churning money hand over fist. I am continually surprised at how expensive it is to live in the United States, but the "heat" has been turned up so much on just about everyone...that the only way anyone is fine is if things are firing at 100%. That's great if you can keep up the pace, day after day, week after week, year after year.

When you can't keep up that pace...it feels weird that you just go extinct. That things collapse so readily and handily that you just cannot survive. Why did the people that came before me think that this was okay to do? Why did our elders and people who are no longer around who laid the foundations of this country come to the conclusion that a one-bedroom apartment in a city should cost $2300 a month? Why do small businesses have to pay $40,000 a month for renting a space? Like...why is that a thing?

I look at headlines at the cost of things and have many WTF moments. To put California's power lines underground to help with wildfires would cost $243 billion dollars.  Seriously? Why is it that expensive. Why does it cost $243 billion dollars to bury power lines? I don't get it. The scale of everything just seems out of control. Anything that breaks down in my house always costs at least $1,000.00 unless you do it yourself. My family pays the nurse who takes care of my father $1200 a week. He gets great care and he deserves it, but holy crap is that expensive. People seem to be completely out of touch with how much things cost.

A wheelchair ramp made of aluminum for my friend's house was $3,500.00 for ten feet with a rail. To fix the head gasket in my Ford Pickup and to correct broken seals around the transmission cost me $3,000.00. I paid it, but I was left thinking...why is everything so expensive?

Who are the people who can keep up with this kind of pace at how fast bills come at you fast and hard? People are going to fall off this treadmill. It isn't sustainable. The fact that we are losing art institutions like movie theaters is just a canary in the coal mine. In my opinion, we have raised the cost of living and doing business in the United States to toxic levels. I guess we shall see soon enough how it all turns out in a post-pandemic world.