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.
