Is This the End of the American Dream?

It's been said that America runs on small businesses. 

In 2019, small businesses employed half of the entire private workforce in the U.S.

But the pandemic is laying waste to tens of thousands of these businesses across the country. The lack of a coordinated national response to fight the spread of the virus, along with a horrifically flawed federal bailout program, is leading to the end of gyms, nail salons, corner groceries, restaurants, and countless other mom-and-pop operations.

“I think we are really looking at an extinction-level event,” said Amanda Fischer, policy director at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, a nonprofit research firm, in an interview with Vox.

The coronavirus may be the latest catastrophe to strike American small businesses, but they were struggling mightily before anyone ever heard of COVID-19.

Vox takes a deep dive into the state of the American dream.