Corona consequences

[Apeirogon]

Yeah, I know there are already one Corona topic, but it mostly oriented on how Covid going on right now and "omg authorities do nothing, we all gonna die!!!!1111111111".

In this topic I suggest to share your opinions of how Covid will change society in future. By society I mean not Doom community but...mmmm whole Earth, say it in this way.
Reason is, sooner or later it WILL ends. We or finally find some cure from it or, which is too far unrealistic, run out of humans.
In first case, most realistic, after it ends we all have to deal with its consequences. And judging from the current situation, it would be something.

[Hellser]

The truth is, humanity as a whole won't change too much. Currently, humanity went through a lot of diseases, plagues and viruses. One serious case, The Black Death, culling 75-125 million humans from this world. The Coronavirus is going to be different, as it's much more modern - and shows a lack of communication, misinformation and willingness from our governments. For the future, I believe we, as humans, should take this pandemic and learn from it from all angles. Faster lockdowns, quicker 'stay-at-home' orders, penalize those who seek to gain profit or horde supplies from other members in their communities / health staff. Everything should of have been done quicker.

But as for seeing these suggestions be put into effect? I'm afraid it won't happen. At the end of the day, money lines the pockets of our law makers and our representatives. Most of them would rather seek to better their end goals than seek to protect those who are looking to them for answers.

This is my opinion. My realistic approach to a nasty situation... that and I've been on a House M.D. kick, so maybe House is rubbing off on me.

[Redneckerz]

Corona won't break the spirit that houses within us.

It does not divide the people, it unites them.

And within that realm, no virus can ever conquer us.

[Rachael]

In the long term Hellser is right. It's going to take more than a single pandemic to fix things.

However, on the flip side, most of the western world has always been a house of cards to begin with. Covid-19 was simply the stiff breeze that blew them over.

On one hand, the consciousness about the inequalities of our society and the austerity that we live under have become more and more the center of attention in recent years, for better or worse. Covid-19 ripped whatever veneer off that was remaining to cover it. The illusion of freedom and exceptionalism has been broken, and people can see plain as day now that something is deeply wrong with our world and it needs to be fixed. But whether they are willing to put forth the effort to do what needs to be done remains to be seen.

At this point, there's no "normal" that we'll ever go back to. The world we knew 3 months ago is no more. It simply isn't. We can rebuild and go back to something resembling it, if we want the familiarity, sure, and life can go on that way. And I am sure there are many people who will try to go down that path - honestly I can't tell you if they're going to be successful or not. But there is no possible way to exactly replicate things as they were back then. Normal has been forever shattered, like a rock shot through a glass window, and it's not because of the pandemic itself, but because of the extremely fragile conditions that preceded it that were agitated by it.

So - in all - things are definitely going to be different. What similarities the future shares with our past remains to be seen. It might be much, it might be little, it's really hard to predict right now. But one thing's for sure: No matter how long the pandemic lasts, it will leave deep scars in our collective psyche.

If we had not been teetering on the edge as it was before the pandemic, then instead, this thing would've actually faded into memory very quickly after it passed, like many other pandemics in the past have done.

[Graf Zahl]

The one thing it clearly did is to point out who's a bad leader - let's hope people realize that when it's time to vote again.

[sinisterseed]

Yeap, what Hellser said is basically what I'm thinking of as well. Humanity has gone through a lot - plagues, wars, and so on - but how much has it really changed since?

Corona brought a number of nasty things about the world we live in, and has certainly opened a few people's eyes, but it remains to be seen whether this will truly lead to building something better, or once it's all over we'll just go back to eating each other alive and whatever we did before. Some things will change, they already have, the world from before the outbreak is simply gone, but whether we'll actually build something better to last remains to be seen. Some people will definitely head down that path, but others will inevitably act like nothing happened, since the tendency for stagnation or regression exists and can be observed in any society, regardless of how small or big it is. Remains to be seen which one will prevail ultimately.

[Drake Raider]

Honestly, I'm loving the quarantine. It's given me so much time to catch up on my backlog that I finally feel I have time to breathe. I'm hoping to get ahead of the game when it's all over. I have a feeling I had it (untested) back in January, but if it was the same thing, it was more irritating then problematic. Not to understate the effects in those who suffer more of course.

[Matt]

I don't think the economic downturn that will follow this will be as bad as the Great Depression.

I dare not surmise any more than that, though I'm already afraid of jinxing this with that.

[Rachael]

The thing is we don't know how bad the economic downturn really will be. Forecasts are bad, but in the end no one can truly see into the future, all anyone can do is make an educated guess based on past events and the direction things are generally going. The only thing we can be certain of is the general economic activity will take some time to get back to what it used to be, even after the pandemic is over. For better or worse, everything left in its wake is helpless to its change. Some businesses (such as grocery stores, or consumables manufacturers, or electronic and entertainment industries) are doing extremely well.

[Ravick]

In the long term, corona will be one of those diseases children got vaccines for and we never hear about real people being infected by it - just like, lets say, smallpox or measles. For now, I don't want my beloved ones, or myself, being one of the casualties.

About the economic downturn, there are actually no really trustable way to predict it. You see, Economics is not really an empirical science (or "strictu sensu"), so it is open to schools of thought, and so, to ideology. Economists from different ideologies may have very, and I mean VERY, different predictions. It usually does not happen in truly empirical sciences (just like, lets say, chemistry).

For example, here I've seem discussions of people afraid of both inflation and deflation for the next year, and a few of these discussions were from friends who teach and/or study Economics for living. Some think that more developed countries will overcome the crises first, because of their stronger economies. Others believe that the more developed countries are nowadays too dependent of the service sector of their economies, and that less developed countries will be faster to create wealth in their more primary economic sectors. I mean, it seems hard to predict even for those people who have bigger knowledge in this area.

As for myself, I'm rly afraid a new 1929, at least for less developed countries, as the one I live.
But I'm just a layman at this subject. An I hope I'm wrong.

[Apeirogon]

The one thing it clearly did is to point out who's a bad leader - let's hope people realize that when it's time to vote again.

I asked about "what will be the corona consequences", not "what is your favorite sci-fi situation "

[Redneckerz]

The one thing it clearly did is to point out who's a bad leader - let's hope people realize that when it's time to vote again.

I asked about "what will be the corona consequences", not "what is your favorite sci-fi situation "

I am fairly sure Graf was responding to Rachael.

This seems is a weirdly odd thing to snicker a joke over.

[lizardcommando]

One thing I really hope for (besides things going back to normal and a vaccine, obviously) is a major shift to remote work lifestyle. The streets are way quieter and the highways are no longer an unholy shitstorm in the Bay Area. I really hope the big tech companies adopt the remote work lifestyle permanently.

[Graf Zahl]

Yeah, and here some politicians are already pushing for some legal right to do it. For me personally it'd mean not driving 50km to work each day and back home - that was the really nice thing those last 4 weeks.

[NeuralStunner]

back to normal

As I've both seen said a number of times and thought myself: We don't want normal. Normal sucked. It's why things are as bad as they are. I'd rather things to get back to right.

... But I'll be surprised if things don't go back to something strongly resembling the way they were before. Humans are stubborn creatures.