The aftermath of Covid-19

It's official. The world is closing. Businesses need to close. Borders need to close. Only essential institutions and businesses must stay open and even those with severe restrictions. We need to go home and stay home. Go outside for urgent matters only. Go walk the dog but keep a safe distance from others. Wash your hands often. This is not the zombie apocalypse but it is pretty close.

People start panic buying. Hoarding happens. Governments must intervene. If not controlled soon we will have a forced quarantine (my personal opinion is that we should already be there). Even after strict recommendations are communicated by the health authorities people still tend to act as if these things only happen to others and go about their lives. Quite contradictory. Everyone goes to a supermarket and packs the place (and thus put yourself and others in harm's way) but hoard buys toilet paper... go figure! Irrational behavior is visible throughout society. Governments react instead of thinking ahead. Mistakes are made. Some excusable, others not. Politics put people in danger. People put people in danger.

On the other hand, we see solidarity and good things happening. In Portugal, the Portuguese public transportation companies have disinfected all vehicles with a specific chemical compound to prevent contagion. Carris (Portuguese bus company) is not charging tickets. Local businesses, companies, and governments are not waiting for the state to act and close doors to send their employees home. Some of us, like myself, are lucky enough to be working from home since March 9th. Others, usually working in restaurants, shops and all types of jobs that deal with the public are going home with varying degrees of financial help. Some will get 100% of their salaries. Others not even close. And then we have those who keep things running. Public health services are overwhelmed. Medical staff, firemen, police, army, Produce and essential retail stores and supply/distribution chains. These will be stretch to the max. Hopefully, we won't see riots or pillage in the streets but wen can't still say it won't happen. All in all the last few weeks have been of mayhem worldwide. And we are still only in the beginning. It is foreseeable that the effects of this pandemic to be active and visible for the next three to six months, at least.

But what happens next? We see lots of companies trying to help. Lots of professionals. But everything has a cost. Energy, wages, taxes, supplies, distribution chains, everything. Some are already saying that we will need help from the government, the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and all sorts of financial institutions. That's all very beautiful and all but it won't be enough. If we keep the same mindset that has been ruling the planet for the past century we will collapse. Big corporations will have help from these institutions. Big corporate CEOs and administration boards will keep their yearly income - even if they take a pay cut it will be minimum and ultimately insignificant to them - and everybody else will be left to die. Restaurants, local businesses that were forced to send all their employees home, even if they have been able to afford to pay them, will have to keep paying taxes, suppliers, and so on. Those same employees, forced to be home by the quarantine, will have to pay their bills, their mortgages, to buy food, their children's schools. And if you consider countries like the USA were heath care is not free for all... All in all, businesses and people will suffer the consequences of every needed action to stop the virus. But there's no real alternative. We will all have to face it. But some, at the top, will probably not flinch. For some CEO or board member, a couple of thousands of dollars or euros or whatever currency you deal in will be meaningless. For some even hundreds of thousands. For the rest, in a worldwide scenario, just a couple of thousands are enough to bring a local business to the brink of bankruptcy or a family to have to choose between putting food on the table or pay their bills. Sad, but true.

We, as a global community, as a planet, could take this opportunity to revise those "debts" that no one really knows to whom we own. Please, I say this conscient that I am not an economist. I know nothing about the world and corporate finances. Still... Countries that own countries. If you take all world country debts and fully pardon them, what would happen? If you could put every single country debt in an enormous scale, my guess is that it probably would be more or less even. Better yet, how about having a full pardon for individuals up to medium size businesses in local and state taxes, maybe even utility bills? Tabua rasa might be beneficial. How about using this once in a lifetime chance to review and rethink world economy? Maybe, just maybe, we could all survive the aftermath. Sadly, I believe it will happen exactly the opposite. Those who are at the top will continue to feed their greed and those who are at the bottom will be the ones left to suffer the consequences.

And this is why I believe that the aftermath of Covid-19 will be much worse than the virus itself. Take this into consideration. This is the time to come together. Start now. We need to move past the mindset of "me" to a mindset of "we". Only and only then we will survive. Each one as an individual and this planet of ours we call home.

Posted originally in https://medium.com/@rvercesi/the-aftermath-of-covid-19-7ac312738c54