My name is Janet Webster Jones. I am the founder and current owner and operator of Source Booksellers.

We've been in business 30 years right here in Midtown Detroit.

Nine million people filed for unemployment over the past two weeks.

Unemployment is at a record high since the Great Depression. Small business owners like Janet are struggling to make it work.

We've had to use a lot of thinking energy. We had intentionally not done online sales.

But this has been an advantage for us because it forced us to pivot to online sales and keep the business sort of running.

We're not open to the public of course, but we do receive deliveries and mail and we're also mailing out people who are buying online from us.

So we're doing some of that as well. So we're weathering like that. I'm grateful for every single breath.

Just how bad will the economic consequences of COVID-19 be? We'll explore. This is America Dissected. And I'm your host, Dr. Abdul El Sayon.

I got to know Janet Webster Jones because I was supposed to be speaking at her shop right about now.

She owns one of Detroit's best independent nonfiction bookstores and I just published a book.

Alas, here we are. People like Janet and I are the lucky ones in this moment.

Janet owns a small business and can maneuver her business around to take advantage of technology to sell books over the internet.

Me? My business is mainly the exchange of knowledge, which I'm literally doing with you right now.

And if I'm not podcasting, I'm using the internet to teach over Blackboard or to speak on Zoom or using a phone to talk to a reporter.

Modern technology makes both my and Janet's work possible. We both work in the knowledge economy.

But for a lot of folks, that's not possible. You can't manufacture a car over the internet.

You can't make a sandwich or cut hair or install a roof either.

And if you can't do these things, you can't be paid for them, which means you can't turn around and use your money to buy stuff.

The economy relies on people exchanging things, goods, services, information, and exchange for payment.

People then use their payment to turn around and buy those exact same things, onward and upward.

But all that requires people engaging with each other for those exchanges in the first place.

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