Has Covid-19 Pushed Small Businesses to the Verge of Extinction?

Sonali Kolhatkar speaks with Amanda Ballantyne, Executive Director of the Main Street Alliance, a national network of 30,000 small business owners.

The economic stimulus plan just passed by Congress includes $350 billion in loans to small businesses. But big businesses like the airline industry are being given grants. At a time when the coronavirus pandemic is forcing massive shutdowns of the entire cities and states, how are small businesses to survive?

If workers employed by those businesses are forced to stay at home but small business owners are seeing a near-complete zeroing out of revenues, many if not most businesses will be forced to shut down. My next guest worries that we are on the edge of an extinction event for small businesses.

Rising Up with Sonali is a radio and television show that brings progressive news coverage rooted in gender and racial justice to a wide audience.

Rising Up With Sonali was built on the foundation of Sonali Kolhatkar's earlier show, Uprising, which became the longest-running drive-time radio show on KPFK in Los Angeles hosted by a woman.

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