So now we have 23 million newly minted unemployed, and the states seem to be going their own way no matter what a neutered Federal Government wants to do about it. You cannot say that when the fog lifts that things are going back to the way it was. For one thing, the robotic revolution will accelerate, as robots don't need social distancing rules or demand hazard pay. If unemployment doesn't moderate soon after this is over (thanks to all those robots), we may require a real universal basic income. That kind of sea change will not come easily in a place like America: It is become painfully obvious that the optimates have a weak leader and the populares didn't seem to be do much better. So an institutional economic change seems unlikely (even if some House members are playing with the idea as part of the recovery).
At least there may be one long term positive consequence of the global shut-down, we may finally start to fix the environment (or at least try not to kill it so much). South Korea's new government is implementing a "green new deal", and Shell swears up and down that they'll be "carbon neutral" by 2050. A recent survey by Opinium of random UK voters found 48% of people surveyed believe that climate change "with the same urgency to climate change as it has with Covid-19" by their government (if you can believe surveys). The Daily Beast even took a crack at the "post coronavirus" prognostication, linking the continued trend in deurbanization and rapid growth in "work from home" (to a whopping 5% of the workforce pre-covid-19) with their obvious ecological advantages.
The BBC Travel section (I know, right?) has a nice coverage of the improvements seen globally, and wonders if this "protect the whole environment by telecommuting and virtual meetings" thing sticks how travel in general will change, and what the responsibilities of individuals who do travel will be.
“Overtourism is just another form of overconsumption,” said Shannon Stowell, CEO of the Adventure Travel Trade Association and sustainable travel advocate. “I'm fine seeing tourism numbers lower overall and for the quality of tourism to increase, where people understand the destination better and have a positive impact on it versus overcrowding and pollution and wildlife habitat loss – which are all outcomes of too much tourism,” he added.
Maybe I'm being overly optimistic. The pandemic is already given reason for the government to loosen restrictions on mercury emotions from power plants and polluting companies are using this as an excuse to upend other restrictions while collecting bailout money. Maybe it is just already too late.
At least facebook has added new "care" emojis. So we have that, which is nice.
BTW: Go to Joel Pett's facebook page and buy a shirt to support someone that I didn't give any money to and doesn't sell shirts in my size (he still deserves money tho).