Respectfully, I will disagree. 2009 was a tough year and 2020/21 was pretty apocalyptic but day to day life didn't feel as described in this opinion piece (to me at least). I spent much of that period installing irrigation systems and getting by on temp jobs, it wasn't cake, but it wasn't tumbleweeds adrift in a hellish nightmare-scape either.
I guess what compels me to bother disagreeing is the author is such a fraud, telling us how the last twenty years he spent at 'think-tanks' with catered lunch, and in academia (which is about as far removed from reality as can be) have been just oh-so-awful.
The last twenty years in Russia, Venezuela, etc., the argument is compelling, but in the U.S., I just don't agree.