Reply to America is in an economic tailspin. Why does life feel so normal?

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[quote=Anonymous]Poverty is not a character flaw. People who were at the margins or struggling before the pandemic are really suffering now.

It will take time for it all to play out - once the unemployment stops or when more breadwinners get sick and die or when people have to choose between working and not leaving young kids home alone because there is no school.  We are in early days.  This pandemic will widen the wealth and opportunity gap in our society for a whole generation.  I watch as my county runs out of food when they hand out meals to replace school lunch.  Think about what type of position you would have to be in to give up an hour or more of your time every day to go get free food.

Meanwhile the rich get richer.  My stocks are all up. Mortgages are at all time lows and $1M+ houses in my neighborhood are selling like hotcakes.  The government shutdown impacted us more - we knew many families then that were dual feds and had no income.  This time around I am not seeing / hearing of people in my circle having financial issues yet.

I'm in an online moms group with women from all socioeconomic categories and all areas of the country.  Some people are struggling now.  Others are staring down the start of the school year and trying to decide if they quit or take a leave of absence to stay home. It won't have the optics of the dust bowl / depression era breadlines - but there will be decades of impacts from careers abandoned and never resumed, new graduates that never launch on their intended path, people who never reach their potential. I read a statistic once about people in GenX who graduated into the recession of the late 80s and how they never made as much as people who graduated just a few years later.  I hope that's not true.  At least this article implies the impacts might dissipate in 5-10 years.  Still, that's a rough 10 years if you are 22 and hoping that decade will include getting married, buying a house and having kids. [/quote]

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