Having lived in SE Asia for a few years and returning to the USA late last year, I can confidently tell you that the deaths caused by slamming on the economic brakes has killed more people than COVID-19 has even with the inflated numbers left in.
While many Americans enjoyed a huge increase in EBT and Unemployment benifits, along with the stimulus money, most citizens of poor countries got little aid.
The amount of aid and the percentage of people being excluded, ensured many people have literaly starved to death. In poor countries they have fewer animals of any sort in populated areas because they were already consumed years or even decades ago.
Over 7 years of visiting then 3 years of living in the Philippines I saw no one fishing from the shore of any lake, nor river, nor ocean. The pump boats never have a big haul.
Same thing with hunting. Anything besides feral dogs and cats are hard to find. Here in the USA there are still animals that survive in large numbers because being hit by a car is less devastating on the population than hungry bellies.
My wife is from the Philippines. Thank god the dollar goes a long way there! Her father goes months without pay, then only gets partial money. And he has a good government job! They were on full lockdown for months. Only one person allowed out to grocery shop then straight back home. As bad as it is here, it's not bad!
Exactly! Wages are low even in a good job, compared to the West. When I was a teen there were cash jobs that often pay below minimum wage, those are dried up in the USA. However there are still many people working below the legal minimum wage in the Philippines.
Minimum wage runs from around 6 bucks a day in most provinces to around 11 bucks a day in the NCR (Capital) Region. However... In Dumaguete at the mall and a few other spots the real security guards earn double the minimum, but represent only a few percentage points of the security. The vast majority are working below minimum because their licenses are fake. The security agencies help people get the fake... so they can underpay. Minimum in Dumaguete is around 360 Peso a day, Typical fake guard gets 250 a day. I use security guards as an example because its a field with many workers. Everywhere you go there are guards. Even fast foods like Mcdonalds...