by Michael Snyder
End of the American Dream
It has just been one thing after another in 2020. First, the COVID-19 pandemic erupted and quickly spread all over the globe. At this point more than 800,000 people have died globally, and authorities are warning us to brace ourselves for another wave of the pandemic in the fall. Of course many would argue that fear of the virus has been even worse than the disease itself, and it is undeniable that the COVID-19 shutdowns were the primary reason why we have plunged into the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s. More than 57 million Americans have filed new claims for unemployment benefits so far this year, and that number just keeps rising with each passing week. On top of all that, the tragic death of George Floyd caused an unprecedented wave of civil unrest to erupt in major cities all across America, and many are anticipating a fresh outburst of unrest as we head toward election day in November. So coming into this month we had already faced far more trouble than we do in a typical year, and now a very strange series of natural disasters is making things even worse.