Is COVID19 the catalyst for a necessary restructuring of society?

submitted by neovulcan from self.whatever

Warning: some of these links go to Reddit, but I don't feel like rewriting the whole thing.

I've seen a lot of conflicting stories since COVID19 came out, both showing overreactions and under-reactions. For instance, why are dog treat factories and candy factories still operating as 'essential'? Why are socially distant activities like camping getting restrictions, but things like gas stations and train stations getting almost no attention?

Why do we struggle to define who is essential? I think it starts with realizing that society has switched from 70-80% agriculture to roughly 11% agriculture in only the past few hundred years. So, for everyone "liberated" from working in agriculture, how many of them are productive and how many are just maintaining appearances?

It's time to let go of commuter culture.

So, now that US Unemployment is highest since 1930s, should we look to repurpose those sent home as "non-essential"? Thanks to the internet, we can accomplish so much from home. So much more than single-income families accomplished in the 1950s. We have so many different resources online to learn new skills - online libraries, Coursera, Youtube, etc etc.

Where are we sinking dollars ineffectively? College? Fashion? Movie theaters? Popping these bubbles can be a very good thing.

Perhaps the greatest benefit from all this COVID19 hype is the shift in focus to the medical field. If health care only gets more expensive when fewer people work in a given field, it stands to reason health care will become more affordable as more people enter the field. Simple economics - supply and demand.

To clarify my question (since "is" implies yes/no), which changes are temporary, which are permanent, and which of those are beneficial? I'm certainly not cheering on a rising death toll by any means, but we're at least close to realizing some significant good during this madness.

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[–]yayblueberries 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I was "liberated" from a non-profit that assists agriculture due to this quarantine. There is no productivity coming from me, because despite that I've applied to jobs, I got ghosted by one and the rest have said nothing. The U.S. is very anti-work as a whole. People have given me crap for trying to go back to working! I also do not have the resources to "work from home" despite that society is trying to force that. I now rent a room and the homeowner already works from home, it would be very disruptive to both of us if we TRIED to both work remotely from this same space.

I just resent all of this being seen as good. This is forced, sudden change, without being given ANY of the resources to adapt. Those of us who were already sort of poor and lacking good, solid housing or technology are being totally fucked over now. If the country wanted to restructure society it could have done so any other way besides killing off people with a bioweapon.

[–]neovulcan[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

If the country wanted to restructure society

I doubt there's any grand central planners. At least not with enough influence to pull this off on their own.

killing off people with a bioweapon.

This is also unlikely. The shifts I'm describing should have happened a decade or two ago, so it's not like the timing of this disease is ideal. We finally had an event that had this effect, but it could easily have been earlier or later. If swine flu, avian flu, SARS, etc had been more infectious, we might've seen these steps then. Or maybe we could've ignored COVID, herd immunity would've taken hold, and we still would have so many people in the wrong jobs.

Since you're renting a room, you probably don't have a whole lot of stuff, and could hypothetically move anywhere. Have you considered other career fields or locations? Have you explored any kinds of grants, scholarships or other programs to jumpstart a new career? I believe many can learn and/or work from home, but if it's already giving you anxiety, you're not likely one of those people.