Yes. Financially? absolutely. emphatically.

first, I think you missed the part where the pandemic was literally just starting four years ago. the shitstorm was just starting to build in March 2020, the Pandemic wasn't at full stride yet, and the devastating consequences didn't start coming home to roost until the summer. that said:

I managed to keep my jobs. One is a side gig company with about twenty employees I started as a retirment investment. That was growing nice and steadily and controlled before the pandemic. When the pandemic hit, I had to restructure our services to try and protect revenue; I made the decision to continue paying staff regardless of if they had hours or not.... part of that was to protect their healthcare... which, very nearly bankrupted me. I did not get to have PPP loans because I didn't have in-house lawyers that helped write the damn law (aka I and my lawyer had to read the terms and stuff.) and that cash was gone by the time we felt it was reasonable.

We haven't recovered from that. we're out of the woods, but that's a hit to our growth that will set me back three to four years. I feel I did the right thing on many levels, but it wasn't without cost. I don't want a medal or whatever, but I need you to understand that that company is my retirement savings. as far as small businesses, a very large number of them have shuttered and won't be coming back. I was lucky in that I could minimize overhead and get to where I wasn't bleeding money like the Black Knight; but it still wasn't good. I probably lost around a year and a half of growth, and the the pandemic stalled me for another three or four years.

My other job I'm a manager for contract security, our employees are essential; and in that respect, so was I, since it was my job to keep them in uniforms, supplies, current on their training; and make sure we had coverage when people got sick, etc. Another aspect of that job is reviewing new hires before sending them to clients. one of the things we look at is debt. I can tell you first hand credit card debt has gone out of control. but don't take my word for it. Credit card debt has been skyrocketing since ~2021- around the same time significant aid has stopped going out. Evictions are also on the rise and skyrocketed after the moratorium expired. Housing costs are also ridiculous.

Take home wages are still down 3% from four years ago, too, when you adjust from inflation. This means, on top of massive economic hardship, they're spending more just for basic necessities like housing, food, child care; as well as the massive death toll. this means people are saving less, and people that were living pay check to paycheck (which is roughly half of americans.)... they're tappign what savings they had (which, to be blunt wasn't much for most.); while stacking on debt to pay for things like car repairs or medical bills.

So yeah. People are doing worse. much. much worse.

Not actually American here tbf but yes absolutely? Like 2020 was actually fairly good: prices weren't high and there weren't perpetual infinite layoffs and in general the world was on the right track, now everything is beyond fucked, can barely afford gas and food, utterly priced out of now luxury priced fast food even.

In fact the only positive right now that wasn't there 4 years ago is the ubiquity of remote work and that came from the pandemic, don't know how I'd deal if I had to commute too in all this shit. I honestly can't think of any negative pandemic impacts on myself personally if I think selfishly. I also only finished my bachelors thanks to the extensions we got on the final cws due to the pandemic, and because it was all remote I could then afford to do a master's as well which actually got me a job at the end of it.

I know some others were affected but I struggle to think of how (layoffs back then too I think?), and I struggle to think how they wouldn't be worse off now when everything is worse?

It's dumb but a lot of people are buying into it.