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It wasn’t your imagination: 2020 was the worst year many Americans will have ever experienced. My depressing story, and a short thread: https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/531279-why-2020-really-was-the-worst-year-ever 1/15
First, the obvious: At least 19.1 million Americans (and probably multiples more) got #COVID19. Most recovered, but a third of a million people are dead, hundreds of thousands more are suffering #longcovid, and more than 100k spent Christmas in the hospital. 2/15
Nearly half of Americans say they’ve lost income since March. The burden has fallen most heavily on Black and Hispanic households, households that make under $50k a year and those without a college degree. 3/15
There are fewer jobs in America today than there were in Nov 2015. There are fewer private sector jobs than there were when Pres. Trump took office. 4/15
The unemployment rate is off its early-pandemic high, but that’s in part because so many have given up looking for jobs. The labor force participation rate was lower in Sept than at any time since the summer of 1976. 5/15
Almost 1 in 6 restaurants in the US are closed. That’s 110,000 businesses. And it’s not just the new ones that couldn’t survive. The National Restaurant Association says the average restaurant closed by the pandemic had been in business for 16 years. 6/15
Almost 8 million Americans have fallen into poverty since March. Almost a quarter of those with a high school education or less now find themselves living below the poverty line. 7/15
Between Feb and April, the last month for which we have data, 3 million households and 6 million individuals signed up for food stamps. An estimated 27 million sometimes or often do not have enough to eat. 8/15
Enrollment in public schools is down by 2%. That’s 500,000 kids who have been pulled out of schools. FAFSA applications, an early sign of how many students will apply for college, dropped 18%, and down even more in WV, LA, MS, AK, AR and OK. 9/15
Violent crime is surging to levels not seen in a quarter century. Murder rates are at multi-decade highs in cities like Houston, Chicago, Tacoma and Albuquerque (and at a 15-year high in DC). 10/15
Overdose deaths are surging again. The CDC monitors 38 jurisdictions for real-time overdose data. Overdoses have risen in 37 of those jurisdictions. In 10 Western states, overdose rates have almost doubled, led by a resurgence of meth 11/15
This year is on pace to be the hottest on record. We just went through the most active Atlantic hurricane season on record, and one of the worst Western wildfire seasons on record. Both the hurricane season and wildfire season started earlier and ended later than usual 12/15
How bad were the wildfires? 4 percent of California burned. One in every 25 acres in the entire state went up in flames. Across the West, 10.2 million acres burned. 13/15
This crappy year is taking a toll on our mental health. Almost 1 in 5 of us say our mental health is worse than it was last year. About 2/3rds told Census researchers they felt nervous, anxious or on edge for several days in the last week. 14/15
There is light at the end of the tunnel, but there is still tunnel to go. No one will be sorry when 2020 is in the rearview mirror. https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/531279-why-2020-really-was-the-worst-year-ever 15/15
