03-21-2020, 03:25 AM
Something I think has been vastly understated is the possible psychological effects this virus may create even after it settles down. There are going to be a lot fewer people willing to make investments in many things fearing another pandemic or even other natural catastrophes such as hurricanes, earthquakes and the like. Many people are going to remember panic buying of toilet paper, how the meat sections of groceries were wiped out overnight and other effects and extreme inconveniences in our daily lives.
Suppose for a moments you had used all your life savings to open a new restaurant back in January for example. Well, that life savings is wiped out for good in most instances. I suspect we'll hear of several life savings wiped out, but it's going to have a long term effect of making people afraid to dump their savings in to new ventures. We'll never quite know when the next event may strike and how severe it may be. If we're really lucky we won't have another for a long time, but I wouldn't count on it.
We seem to go long periods with no real catastrophic events occurring and people tend to become complacent and we then decide we no longer have to pay taxes out to support certain preparedness procedures. One that comes to mind might be fall out shelters. Now we haven't had a nuclear war, but there was a time when fallout shelters were fairly common around town. I remember them all over the Dayton area as a kid, but no nuclear wars and all those shelters disappeared over time. if we suddenly needed them again we've become very complacent over such worries. That doesn't mean there's no possibilities of a nuclear war and I'm not suggesting we suddenly build those shelters, but we have seen many hospitals in the past few decades go tits up with little to no funding to build new hospitals. I remember about 5-6 hospitals in Dayton not long ago. I don't live in Dayton anymore, but do know both St E's (Saint Elizabeth) and Good Samaritan hospitals are now gone. It's part of the pattern we see of funding for things to prepare us for hard times drying up to the point that when we need these things they're no longer there.
Good thing for the Dayton area the dams build back after the 1913 floods are still there, but imagine if for some reason the funding to maintain them just dried up or some investor wanted that land to build condos or some nonsense on the sites..
Anyway, I think the psychological effects of this virus will be felt for some time long after it's died down.
Suppose for a moments you had used all your life savings to open a new restaurant back in January for example. Well, that life savings is wiped out for good in most instances. I suspect we'll hear of several life savings wiped out, but it's going to have a long term effect of making people afraid to dump their savings in to new ventures. We'll never quite know when the next event may strike and how severe it may be. If we're really lucky we won't have another for a long time, but I wouldn't count on it.
We seem to go long periods with no real catastrophic events occurring and people tend to become complacent and we then decide we no longer have to pay taxes out to support certain preparedness procedures. One that comes to mind might be fall out shelters. Now we haven't had a nuclear war, but there was a time when fallout shelters were fairly common around town. I remember them all over the Dayton area as a kid, but no nuclear wars and all those shelters disappeared over time. if we suddenly needed them again we've become very complacent over such worries. That doesn't mean there's no possibilities of a nuclear war and I'm not suggesting we suddenly build those shelters, but we have seen many hospitals in the past few decades go tits up with little to no funding to build new hospitals. I remember about 5-6 hospitals in Dayton not long ago. I don't live in Dayton anymore, but do know both St E's (Saint Elizabeth) and Good Samaritan hospitals are now gone. It's part of the pattern we see of funding for things to prepare us for hard times drying up to the point that when we need these things they're no longer there.
Good thing for the Dayton area the dams build back after the 1913 floods are still there, but imagine if for some reason the funding to maintain them just dried up or some investor wanted that land to build condos or some nonsense on the sites..
Anyway, I think the psychological effects of this virus will be felt for some time long after it's died down.
In the immortal words of my old man, "Wait'll you get to be my age!"
Chicago sounds rough to the maker of verse, but the one comfort we have is Cincinnati sounds worse. ~Oliver Wendal Holmes Sr.
Chicago sounds rough to the maker of verse, but the one comfort we have is Cincinnati sounds worse. ~Oliver Wendal Holmes Sr.