America’s miserable, K-shaped Christmas

• Christmas is going to be miserable for lots of Americans this year.
• While higher-income Americans have seen jobs return and incomes grow, lower-income Americans are either still having a hard time or doing even worse— the so-called K-shaped healing
• Relief in the form of a $600 stimulus check is on its way, but months of legal gridlock imply even that assistance will not get here until after the vacation.
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Santa’s in a plexiglass box, there’s an ever-worsening pandemic, and just $600 is on its way

Merry Christmas, America.

In a year like no other, even Christmas isn’t immune to the disastrous effects of the pandemic. Dr. Anthony Fauci will be celebrating on Zoom, and he’s prompting fellow Americans to do the same.

Unfortunately, numerous families will experience their very first holiday season without a liked one.

The ” K-shaped healing” has been the economic story of 2020 Higher-income Americans– specifically those in markets like tech and software– have actually seen jobs return and their earnings grow, with halls appropriately decked

And then there’s the bottom of the K: Nearly 8 million Americans fell below the hardship line from June to November, according to a report from scientists at the University of Chicago and University of Notre Dame.

The latest information from the Bureau of Labor Data shows that over 10 million Americans were still unemployed as of November. Gen Z has been hit hardest in terms of joblessness, while millennials were most likely to get a pandemic pay cut The package, which reportedly includes $600 in stimulus checks and an additional $300 week in unemployment benefits, is half as generous as the last stimulus plan (that one provided for $1,200 stimulus checks a