xss27 wrote:Sorry to be a cynical bastard and a Debbie downer, but I think this is really the calm before the storm.
I would love to believe that this pandemic will force an evaluation of the way we do things, and maybe it will for us personally as individuals. But I do not see that translating to shifting the momentum of our societies, institutions, governments and financial systems. Do we really think the power structures are just going have a moment of clarity and let debt slide? Let us work less hours? Or basically admit that rampant exploitative capitalism based on a love of material things and hedonistic behavior is a failed ideology?
No. They will not.
The economic turbulence this will cause, is causing already, will basically translate to the majority of people working the same (or more) for less, as it always does. The losses of our economic system always get translated down the chain to the bottom of the pile, to us. The draconian legislation our governments have implemented recently, all which happened at lightning speed and in my country (UK) without any real Parliamentary debate, do we really think that it will be rescinded when the pandemic ends? If this situation goes on for an extended period of time we may find ourselves in an even more authoritarian societies than before. The young people of today don't even remember what life was like before 9/11.
Maybe it won't be so dramatic and bad, but the longer the lockdowns continue the more damage is done to our economies. Maybe life will go back to 'normal', but what will be the cost? Things will be more expensive, inquiries will be held into why our governments didn't prepare properly, inquiries will reach conclusions that get uttered on the 6pm news followed by the weather, and the masses will trundle along just as before except the money in their pocket will be worth less and they will have less freedoms.
The only way I see the situation changing the world for the better is if we collectively decide we've had enough of this bullshit and do some spring cleaning in our governmental systems, or aliens lend a helping hand.
Yeah, things are going to be pretty bad, economically.
And some people like to think that the economy is "only about money", but they're very wrong about that. The economy is about people's lives.
All the healthcare professionals who are saving lives right now need to get paid, medication, vaccination, medical equipment, etc, costs money.
Money that needs to come from somewhere.
A big crisis will result in serious budget cuts, regardless of whether you have a public or a commercialised healthcare system.
Poverty costs lives. In wealthy nations, living in poverty will cost you about ten years. In poor nations, it can be way more than that.
During the financial crisis, suicide rates peaked. In many countries it doubled or tripled, and in greece and spain, you can realy speak of a suicide epidemic.
So in many ways, lives are being affected by a tanking economy.
But people do sometimes learn from crisis.
Sometimes they learn good things, and sometimes it will be mostly bad things they'll learn.
If authoritarian populists like trump, bolsonaro, and orban manage the crisis well, then western civilisation will regress into fascism.
What is good will be bad, and what is beautiful will be ugly. Freedom will be slavery, and war will be peace. Truth will be fake, and fakery will be truth.
Stupidity will be a virtue, and intellect will be a curse.
We will all learn to worship those who oppress us, and learn to hate those who claim our lives have a value greater than that of mere geopolitical pawns.
If they fail though, then, at least in some countries, populism will lose most of it's appeal.
That would result in less racism and xenophobia, less anti-intellectualism, more liberal drug laws, a stronger economic recovery, less economic inequality, and eventually reinvestments in things like public healthcare and education.
Basically the same thing that happened in the western part of post war europe.