The Economy Will Recover, it Just Won’t Resemble The Economy You’re Used to Living Within
Trump wants us to re-open the economy. Like, right the fuck now.
Pockets of protesters with poorly spelled signs (WTF, gang? It’s like you want everyone to think you’re either too stupid to spell a sign correctly or are too filled with outrage to copy edit...) want us to re-open businesses so they can be less inconvenienced.
When this whole thing came down, I was a skeptic. Skepticism is my default mode so big fucking surprise. I made jokes at the casino about how contracting coronavirus would just be a super efficient weight loss program. I, like the experts being touted online, had no problem comparing it to the flu. I put up memes online about Chicken Little. Panic is almost always the worst reaction to anything, so panic was my enemy.
Identify the two extremes. Find the middle ground. Do that.
Yes. As I’ve grown older (and I hope but do not know, wiser) I’m finding that the road in between the most strident is usually the most feasible and smartest approach.
I’m not a scientist but I know some. I was schooled a bit in the interim. I spent time reading far more about this shit (including the developing economic Möbius strip on the horizon). I’m still not a scientist. I’m no more doctor than Dr. Phill. I’m no economist. Thus, my opinion on forecasting either the path the virus will take and the ensuing economic shift we’ll all be living with soon enough is of little value.
What I can weigh in on is relatively simple.
The economy we’ve grown accustomed is going to change dramatically.
You’re going to spend most of your savings. Your MBA and marketing degrees are going to be worthless. The internet will likely become a public utility. Dining out will look very different than it has in the past. Your libertarian ideology will strain to the breaking point as the idea of the government being far more essential for common survival becomes a reality. You’re going to read more. You’ll probably have to learn a second language (probably Spanish but likely Chinese as well) in order to get a job in most cities.
And those jobs you were terrified the undocumented were taking from you? You’re going to have to get in line because they’ve already cornered the market on essential businesses. You didn’t want those jobs because they didn’t pay what you felt you were worth but now, the value system of what jobs are necessary will change.
You know what?
It’s not that bad. This isn’t the End of the World. This isn’t Armageddon (although I still really love that fucking movie...). If you live in Africa, it’s likely getting close—locusts, 70 percent of the country without clean water, poverty unlike anything anyone in America can even conceive. But in America? Calm the fuck down.
If the worst thing you can claim is that you can’t find work and you have to cut your own hair, welcome to America. The America that a whole chunk of black people have lived for, well, most of our history. The America that poor whites without college degrees have made livable. In 1933, they didn’t have Netflix, booze delivered to your home, or Hot Pockets. The Joad’s didn’t have the option of a drive-thru Burger King.
If the Apocalypse is epitomized as a population bored out of their skulls because they can’t go to the movies or shop in a mall, then yes. This is the Apocalypse. If not, shut the fuck up, stay inside to be cautious about delivering death to those around you, and figure out how you will thrive in a different economic value system.
