I think 1) at least is kind of an oversimplification. I’m a biomedical scientist, and am currently working from home. That’s certainly a privileged, white collar job. And this shelter-in-place interlude is giving us time to analyze our data, write manuscripts, give remote seminars, and the like. But it’s not like this is something that can be done long term. We aren’t doing new experiments and generating new data. It’s not like we can have labs in in our home offices. I think the people who think jobs in general can be done from home are just web developers and such.
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It’s going to be life with the virus for a long time.
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I’m feeling optimistic today…
I think there is evidence that a bottom up recovery (as opposed to the typical knee-jerk trickle-down one) is a thing that might work. Twice, the Australian government has given away money to its citizens to stimulate a flagging economy and the first time it actually worked. The second time was only a few weeks ago so the jury is still out on that.
The US has apparently decided to give out cheques for 1200 dollars!! Who would have thunk that!! I mean, can you imagine Ronald Reagan doing that? Strange days indeed!
You give billionaires money and it just disappears but it you give it to normal people they’ll spend it on food and beer and cinema tickets and cakes and soft drinks and… and… and…
They spend it on pizza and the pizza shops can pay their workers, maybe even 15 dollars an hour. And then the pizza shop workers go for a beer and to the flicks and maybe they go bowling and it goes on and on and on…
But like I say, I’m feeling optimistic today. And thinking how nice it would be to go for beer and a pizza with other human persons…
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I just now came out of a fast food joint, the second burger I’ve had since this whole thing began. And the bad-for-you treats are still for sale, so that’s not going anywhere…
I’m more concerned about when the innocuous gizmo that we have plenty of now but are not making any more of runs out. I don’t think its possibl to predict exactly what that’s going to be, but I can imagine a rush on it that’s hard to make up.
…and then a second, unrelated gizmo. I can easily imagine a future where we’ll look back on toilet paper shortages with fond nostalgia.
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Financial futures:
Inevitably, supply chains will have to be restructured in ways that make production costlier. Even if they have to pay more, firms will produce closer to home, whether because of their heightened recognition of the risks of relying on far-flung operations or in response to political arguments for achieving national self-sufficiency in the provision of essential goods. For firms, enhanced security and certainty will mean higher costs and lower productivity, which will translate into higher prices for consumers.
But this is a small problem compared to the impact on labour. Workers experiencing unemployment in a downturn can be permanently scarred. They are less able to form durable attachments with employers and more likely to experience additional episodes of joblessness. Their wages tend to be lower, not just in the immediate aftermath of the event but for decades, even over their entire working lifetimes. Lower wages are a sign that these workers’ productivity has been impaired.
In other words, while there has been no destruction of physical capital in the pandemic, the risk of damage to human capital is significant. At a time when unemployment in the US is on course to reach 25% and higher, this is a serious concern.
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That’s the flipside: employees now get to pay for their own office and desk, as well as be their own janitor. That kind of cost shifting can be very attractive. The potential downside has always been a lack of supervision so we can expect a lot of tech players starting to offer at home surveillance as a service.
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I used to work in an office with people around and I found that I was able to work pretty well, despite being an introvert and despite disliking some of those people.
And I’d go home in the evening and lock the door behind me, and just enjoy being at home. It was a nice feeling to be at home. It was a nice place to kick back.
And then I quit my job and went freelance from home and I found that through my own lack of discipline, the work would expand to fill all the time that was available. And I wouldn’t leave the apartment for days on end and my lovely apartment became a prison.
So working from home may not be for everyone. If I had to do it again, I think I’d rent a desk in a hub somewhere to keep my home sacred.
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I don’t know why but the tweet doesn’t link to the actual article. The guy knows what he’s talking about.
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The issue isn’t whether he knows what he’s talking about. It’s whether what he’s taking about is something worth hearing. Wish I could decide for myself, but alas, it’s paywalled. 
I made an account but I haven’t paid them anything. (They’d really like me to, apparently!) Anyway, it didn’t warn me about a limited number of free articles so it might be the case that you can read it under their “COVID umbrella”, as long as you have an account at all.
If you know someone who has a NYT digital subscription, you might try asking them if they’re able/willing to add you to it.
One of my siblings has one, and can give two other people access at no additional cost, so they added their partner and me.
When I look at my account info, under “Billing information” it just says “You’ve received access to The New York Times from [my sibling’s email address]” Afaict it all works just as though I had a regular paid subscription myself—my account is in my name, with my own email address, and my own password, and I seem to have access to everything there afaict.
(I think NYT calls it “Bonus subscriptions”.)
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I imagine most people don’t feel they need links when making jokes.
(reads article Yeah. I probably didn’t need that fluff.)
A good summary of the good that Corbyn and Sanders have done in helping young people see that another world is possible.
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Re the future, if not after the virus.
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The issue of people (mostly women, but some men too) in abusive relationships being trapped with their abuser during the lockdown has been getting a lot of coverage on the TV here (Ireland) and in the UK.
Hopefully something good will come of that in the longer term.
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What if back to normal is never? Leaders in arts and entertainment are feeling increasingly pessimistic
Charcoalblue, an innovative and future-thinking British design firm of arts venues, has been addressing this problem with its clients in a recent report, sharing its opinion that all new arts buildings will need better ventilation, bigger lobby space, and no crushes at the bar at intermission. It has opined that dressing rooms might need to be individualized, designed to be easy to clean and regularly sanitized, which could be costly. It thinks that more understudies will be needed, should performers get sick. It suggests the glory days for interactive entertainment, of rappers crowd-surfing and audience members hugging actors, are behind us. It worries about the increasing social stigma of coughing at concerts, and the potential anger and disruption that could evolve.
It thinks venues might need more devoted first aid rooms, maybe even isolation rooms for those who become unwell during a show. There is a lot to worry about.
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Maybe, one can only hope that - as this article suggests; this could be a new awakening for labor conciousness
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The Spanish flu and the novel coronavirus are by no means the only examples: the HIV virus, the 2002 SARS virus and the 2009 swine flu also originated in the animal kingdom.
So what if we stopped eating animals?
That’s what I’ve decided to do, not only because of the coronavirus crisis, but it’s another significant factor. That would be my own personal contribution to a post-coronavirus world.
Good question! Though overly hopeful, of course.
I mostly stopped a long time ago, but I know that as the world goes back to “development,” people will eat more animals, not less. Let alone stop!
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