The rains settled in today and after so much being at home, we decided to take Smallsteps out to an indoor playground, that was thankfully didn't have many people at it - which was surprising until we found out why. We have only been there twice in two years even though it is around the corner, but normally (especially when raining) it would be quite full of kids as it is easy for parents. They essentially pay the 19€ a child so the kids can run amok while they read a book in the cafe.
However, because of Corona, it is now required to reserve a 2 hour time slot online (we had to do it at the register as we didn't know) so it doesn't get overcrowded. Th problem is, 2 hours isn't a very long time for kids to play there and the price is the same as it always was, which had no time limitation at all. As far as value for money goes, what wasn't cheap before, is now very expensive. We took Smallsteps' cousin with us, so it was doubly bad value.
But, there is value to be found in other areas and even though there were very few people there, out of coincidence, one of my clients was there with his daughter and an ex-colleague from a long gone job was with his kids. This meant that I was able to spend a few moments catching up with a client I haven't had the opportunity to see for almost six months, as well as reconnect with an old friend and arrange another meetup soon.
While working remote is great for some things, it is terrible for building or rekindling relationships and it is almost impossible to create new connections without having the opportunity of face to face discussion. What this means is that for many businesses (not just mine), the lockdown restrictions have not only retracted business, they have also reduced the potential for expansion.So, instead of growing, it is about saving and maintaining the status quo. This will have long-term affects on the future possibilities of many companies and the longer it goes, the worse it will be and will have increasingly severe and far-reaching compounding affects across businesses too.
The immediate costs of this debacle is enormous, but it is going to be nothing compared to the long-term costs that will be paid at a global level, not only in business, but socially. While some countries will fare better than others, I know that in Finland there are already business lines that are laying people off permanently, with many of these people having very little option to find alternative income sources, so become reliant on taxpayer-funded government social services.
This leads to an increase in those who will soon be considered long-term unemployed, even though they were doing relatively well previously. But, there are knock-on effects from this too, including their physical and emotional well-being, which will also affect those around them, including their children. This means that there will be at least a generation of people who's future went from being pretty bright to suddenly struggling financially with potential family dysfunction that wouldn't have been present otherwise. Not only that, the massive debts that are being wrung up as we speak, will need to be clawed back by the same generation.
Whichever way you look at it, it doesn't look great, but this is in Finland, one of the most stable and rich countries in the world where a lot of social support is available because of the high degree of economic participation, past saving behavior and general drive for sustainable distribution of resources. But this event is global, so there are plenty of countries that do not enjoy the same starting point, meaning that they run the risk of far greater economic disruption on the downside.
I myself come from a relatively poor family, but we didn't go without the basics and there were always relatively good role-models to learn from. We also didn't live in a ghetto surrounded by the poorest people in society and long-term unemployed, we lived in an area where people worked for a living and looked to improve their conditions. If I had been born into a different environment, what would have changed?
Because we are borrowing heavily on the future, we are essentially changing the future conditions to more likely lower economic participation (already happening through automation) and employment potential. This means that an increasing number of children are going to be raised in families and areas where there are lower incomes and higher challenges to overcome to be able to escape the conditions. Right now, we are building the ghettos of the future and possibly, it isn't going to be a minority portion of the population, and it isn't going to be constrained to poorer countries - all will be affected.
While many people will consider my view on this alarmist, I find it alarming that so few actually see where all of this is headed, as if printing money and killing small business is an acceptable way to manage the economy. While people fear and panic around the current issues, it is very, very easy to forget that this is going to have drawn out implications for generations to come and is going to lead to a complete collapse of many of the current systems, both the harmful ones and the useful ones - like general healthcare for all.
I feel that currently, we are mostly sitting in a tunnel with blinders on, focusing all of our resources into an area that while it might have risks, the risks pale in comparison to the consequences of ignoring other areas. We are looking very, very short term and it is going to affect us heavily for a long time to come. But as always, a narrow sliver of society will benefit - the same sliver that always gains.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
That lion in the last picture looks pretty happy with his current conditions.
Posted Using LeoFinance
Since the last Great Depression, governments have become use to throwing money at problems. Shortly After the Spanish Flu things turned around for 8 or 9 years, then for the next 8 or 9 years during the 30's things really began to suck, the Great Depression came into being. The throw money at it and it will go away, (the hardships created by the Spanish Flu), worked for a short time.
The solution to the great depression seems to have been a world at war. Right now people talk about WW3 coming soon. I hope we can avoid it, and not compress the issues of last century into a smaller time frame in the hopes we can avoid 25 years or more of turmoil.
And so did a lot of other issues with it - like a second world war. War is always great for the economy of some, at the cost of many - but the conditions needed to go to war generally is many suffering and willing to follow the leader.
ww3 is likely, unless we as the economic majority and powerhouse choose another path and start relying on ourselves, instead of governments to act for us.
Imagine for a moment that everyone's wealth was in a cryptocurrency and they had the choice to use it as they wish - if the government said "we want to go to war", how many will directly donate?
If the people had to actually Pay for the war out of their own pockets, and it was made clear to them that they are the ones funding the War at the behest of their Government, then I think the likely-hood of war would decrease a lot. But then again, the War Bonds, that were issued to pay for one of the wars, were pretty much bought by people who understood what they were paying for, but most of those bonds were bought by those that would profit from the war.
Yep, knowing that the taxpayers would be the ones to stack on the profits later.
!ENGAGE 20
ENGAGEtokens.I completely agree with you. Too many people are just adopting a "wait and see" behavior instead of realizing we are just staring at what will probably be the worst economic crisis in recent history. Add to that politicians not prepared to manage the situation and continuously lying and you have the perfect scenario for a revolution.
We are facing tough times but one of my hope is COVID19 will finally be controlled once a vaccine appears and probably crypto will evolve as the new world economy with a much better wealth distribution than the actual centralized economies where rich keep getting richer and the middle class is disappearing to become poorer.
My personal feeling is that the pandemic will be the catalyzer for a new world era.
I think it has the potential to get very violent and with the internet meme following behavior of most people (think toilet paper shortages), it won't be localized to one country - it will spread like wildfire.
I m putting a lot of hope in some kind of user owned currency and figure crypto is the only way. There can of course be many currencies that tie in together of course to solve the needs at local levels.
I agree, and if we want it to be a better era for more of us, we have to step up and take responsibility now.
!ENGAGE 20
ENGAGEtokens.There will be no new lock-downs. The response will be much more targeted during the second wave: masks in crowded indoor spaces like buses at rush hour, enforced quarantine for those returning from countries classified as having higher risk, arrangements at school and at workplaces to reduce exposure and a recommendation to work distantly if possible.
The pandemic will be over like every other pandemic before it. In countries or regions incapable of restricting it, it will spread swiftly and it will make a lot of people sick. The most vulnerable will die but but those who become moderately ill from it will be too sick to work for many weeks. A few will have long-lasting symptoms that will reduce their capacity to work and lower their life quality. Eventually effective vaccines will be available or the virus will mutate and develop variants that cause a milder disease and severe symptoms for much fewer and that will spread more rapidly in populations. Those variants will give populations herd immunity against the other variants, too.
Maybe in Finland, but what about elsewhere? Victoria (Melbourne area) got locked down in an unprecedented way a couple weeks ago.
Until the next mutation that lays outside of the created defenses.
That's not good news. At some point, the economic pressure will build up sufficiently to make it impossible lock down the economy.
It's never binary like that. Both the immune systems and the pathogens are responsive.
There hasn't been a single pandemic in history that hasn't run its natural course and vanished eventually. When a new pathogen jumps the species barrier and is introduced in humans, it tends to cause a severe illness because few people's immune systems can deal with it. But over time such pathogens become adapted to humans and the human immune systems adapt to them.
Who suffers with this kind of pressure, who gains?
Eventually there will be a wipeout one, unless we do it to ourselves first with nukes. But this is the issue - this flu really isn't so bad in comparison to what would have happened under a bad flu season anyway.
There's always someone gaining while others suffer. But at some point, too many will suffer.
That's not true. Covid-19 is also not just a flu. It affects not only the respiratory system but other organ systems as well.
The infection fatality rate (= the rate of death of all of those who are infected) is unknown because it is not known what proportion of the population has been infected. Also, the second wave of the pandemic is in an early stage.
The second wave has sometimes been the more deadly one because of this phenomenon called antibody-dependent enhancement:
https://advances.massgeneral.org/research-and-innovation/article.aspx?id=1186
people are waiting when pandemic will be solved and go enjoy their life do work although there are some places that allow people to go out bad there always danger of getting COVID-19
I think this pandemic is mostly a load of nonsense.
Looks like a good time. My family took a short trip to the park ourselves today (posting about that soon)
Looks like smallsteps is enjoying herself. My son keeps asking me when our local indoor park will be open again. Soon I hope. For now, we go to many local outdoor parks and enjoy what we can while staying out of most heavily trafficked public places.
I wonder how Finland compares with my country/state. I do know our current president (the piece of dung he is) has done a terrible job protecting us. Here its all about keeping the cogs churning out the products, out furture be damned!!!
(I feel a rant post coming on soon about all this) :-)
In Finland like anywhere relatively normal, there has been very, very little physical impact on anyone at all - with those dying likely to die from sneezing anyway. Still, they locked stuff down somewhat and business is getting crewed over - and everyone else doubly screwed.
Good evening. It seems to me that the most unpleasant thing is that the governments of many countries can use quarantine restrictions for their own purposes. Thus, dismissals and the inclusion of the autumn quarantine restrictions are inevitable. In short, there is a manipulation tool. This is of course my opinion, my thoughts. But, I could be wrong. I liked your publication, for which thank you very much. I wish you all a good evening and, of course, good health.
I think it is a massive issue and it is incredible just how fast populations said okay to it and introduced even more surveillance systems, that will never be removed again.
well, this is the point where one has to have less dependence on the government and build high-income skills.
at least in your country of residence, there is a good social support system. in Nigeria, there is no room for any support. People are living in abject poverty and are confused on the way forward.
Yep. This sounds weird but potentially Nigeria is in a better position than Finland for some things - as Finns rely on social support that will eventually be lost as it is unsustainable with high unemployment.
I don't think Nigeria is better than Finland in any way. The first problem in Nigeria are the leaders. Then next is mismanagement and looting of funds.
At least there is some of form of support that will be lost. In Nigeria there is nothing and it can be so sad.
I think you missed the point. People get comfortable relying on support - when that support gets removed, they tend to act very poorly. Nigeria has no support, there is only upward and people have learned to rely on themselves.
No question that "a narrow sliver of society" will benefit. Look at the US stock market. While small businesses are crumbling day by day, large corporations are benefiting from their demise. The world is changing rather dramatically around us. We are confined in a finite space until a vaccine is available for the mass populace.
Yet we are looking the other way.
Greetings! In accordance with what you have said, right now in my country the economic situation is worsening for many families, in fact it has been in decline for some time, but the pandemic has completely ended up making the situation worse. You go out and observe a part of the people who live very well and another part who live very badly, the middle class has disappeared, the truth is that I observe with concern what the future holds, since the relay generation, that is to say, the children of today, will find it very difficult to emerge and move forward, since it is not only a problem in my country but at a global level! Thank you for sharing, let's wait and see how things develop after this year of pandemic. Let's hope that many people will come out successfully without problems of anxiety, stress, depression that have caused confinement to the home.
Like everything in this world now - there is polarization. No middle ground.
That's right, it's amazing really! I studied and when I graduated I dreamed of practicing my profession. My dad always told me that the best thing is for you to go into business and I was always reluctant to do that. A few years ago I started a business as a hobby and continued with my usual work. Today, entrepreneurship has given me economic stability and my profession, ironically, is causing me losses. I think I was fortunate to study at a good university and in the right time because at present it is so very complicated to study making it clear that education is free, but other factors such as food, public transport and the main thing is the loss of purchasing power, people do not have how to meet the basic needs and that leads to what instead of thinking about studying and progress invest time to see what they do to earn a little money, I'm talking about young people and adult professionals because they try to survive with the minimum wage they receive!
It is unfortunate that the children played for such a short time, but the payments were still as usual. They should have made adjustments. We only hope that the corana will quickly pass, because the longer things will go wrong. Yes, there are always parties who benefit from these conditions. Thank you for a very useful post like this. May you always be happy with your family there. May this disaster pass quickly.
If we had known before going there, we probably would have thought twice and not gone today. The people who benefit the most in this world are those who have laid a foundation to benefit, meaning that when everyone else is suffering, they can buy.
Yes, that's right, I agree and totally agree with what you said. If possible we should find out before we travel. We also feel the same way here. Corona has affected several companies in our region. Especially tourist attractions.
I am scared to even think of the long term consequences of this pandemic if its short term effects are already chaos if not anything else. I understand not wanting to cause panic or raise fear but it would definitely be wise to be more careful and concerned about the future in general.
I really hope that people are preparing long-term for themselves and not waiting for an authority to save them.
Congratulations @tarazkp! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
You can view your badges on your board And compare to others on the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPTo support your work, I also upvoted your post!
Do not miss the last post from @hivebuzz:
:) Lions are always happy with their condition, because they are the kings of nature, everyone obeys them, despite their changeable mood ...
For me this year, so far, is developing very favorably, despite the crisis. The main merit, in my opinion, is that I was able to shift my worldview from its original place towards prosperity and well-being.
I think that this attitude shift is a huge factor in influencing other decisions that help us grow.