I've been thinking a lot about how if we're lucky, some of us will get to spend around 80 years on this earth, and how those of us who have survived 2020 have had 1.25% of that total potential time simply stolen from us because of our utterly broken, inept, cruel government.

I think about how survivors who have been most severely impacted by their negligent pandemic response tend to be millennials or younger—folks who have only lived on average 25 years so far—4% of their total lifespan spent having to choose between "essential work" or quarantine.

I think about children who have suffered setbacks to their emotional and social development because they haven't been able to go to school and interact with human beings outside of their families—and how so many kids without a safe home environment have lost exponentially more.

I think about elderly people, who already tend to live more isolated lives and frequently suffer from depression as a result—knowing that their remaining time here is limited and still having to spend almost an entire year of said time distanced from their families, or worse.

I think about how a 5 year old who should have spent this year making friends in kindergarten had roughly 20% of the total amount of time they've been alive just taken away. How a grandparent who may only be alive for 5 more years has had to give up of 20% of that remaining time.

And all things considered, despite how unbelievably sad all of this is, those of us who have managed to stay relatively healthy and physically safe through 2020 are the lucky ones. As of today there have been almost 20 million C19 cases and nearly 350,000 deaths in the USA alone.

So many countries handled this pandemic in ways that minimized spread and mitigated damage. This administration's disregard for human life might have cost us 1.25% of our total allotted time here, but what I think about the most is what else we've lost without even knowing yet.

Sorry for being a bummer—I hope 2021 brings better times for all of us. Except for every lawmaker who contributed to the level of unnecessary collective loss we've experienced—for them, I wish for a sinkhole to open up under their feet and swallow them into the core of the earth.

I keep coming back to the concept of time and how this pandemic has disproportionately affected poor people—how people who have less money also tend to have less free time—because when you’re poor, everything takes longer and requires more labor. Rich people *gained* time in 2020

Money buys a lot of things, but above all else, it buys *time*. When you don’t have to do your own laundry or driving or shopping or cooking or childcare, you have extra time in a day that most others do not. Time that allows for relaxation—a literal life extending luxury.

So on top of being able to afford the kind of access to healthcare that keeps people alive in a pandemic, wealthy folks who already have more time in a day to relax and rejuvenate have spent the past year gaining even more resources and exploiting opportunities for passive income

I saw a tweet a while ago that said something along the lines of “there were never “essential workers”, there were only people who could afford to stay at home and the rest of us who had to deliver them their groceries” and I think about that a lot. This system is so broken.

It’s January 1st, 2021 and all I can think about is the number of people who have sacrificed their livelihoods and mental health to stay home since March and are now facing eviction because our government thinks this is a fucking game and spent months hemming and hawing over $600

Make no mistake, our current administration did everything in their power to utilize this pandemic as a means to commit mass genocide. The policies that allowed for the events of 2020 were set in motion decades ago by people who believed being poor should be punishable by death.

And if you look further back, beyond decades and instead at centuries of American history, you will see that at the very core of our country’s founding ideals was a priority above all else: ensuring that some people would always have more access to wealth, i.e. time, than others.

This pandemic will be recorded in history as part of the long established tradition in our country of “Purging The Poor”. Our government previously had to rely on wars and smaller scale natural disasters to do this for them but climate change will offer an expedited schedule.

The people who will suffer most as pandemics and natural disasters begin to happen more frequently will be the people who are Poor By Design in this country: Black and brown people, disabled people, elderly people, young gig/service/retail workers—it’s an established pattern.

I honestly don’t have it in me to make a guillotine reference. There is no quick fix for this. But I am hopeful that we can begin to take steps toward solving some of our most pressing issues—LBJ was also not a progressive or beloved president, yet he initiated The Great Society.

For non-Americans, The Great Society was a collection of programs launched by LBJ in 1964-1965 that were designed to try to eliminate racial and economic injustice. The important takeaway for 2021 is that it acknowledged that race, healthcare, and education are tied to poverty.

The reason why earlier in my thread I chose not to specify “Republicans” and instead blamed our entire government is because Democrats are also responsible for our current situation. Party standards have fluctuated over time; ultimately its all built on a broken foundation.

But the reason I have hope is because history has shown us that acts like The New Deal and The Great Society can be passed even by flawed politicians with imperfect motives; that public pressure has pushed people in power to create programs like Medicare and Social Security—

I want to believe 2021 will be the year we collectively put so much pressure on them that they have no choice but to start helping people. I’m angry every day that it always has to come to that, but history provides a small relief in proving that the people have prevailed before.