We move into the second section of chapter 1. It starts with uncertainty. This can be the enemy of any sane rational person. It's human nature (for what I have learned so far in life) to want, no need for certainty. To know Monday through Friday you're getting up at seven in the morning, have breakfast with your family, going to work, and in the evening you will return home for a family dinner. Then repeat this routine for the next four days. When something comes along and changes that, all bets are off. We are currently seeing this play out.
In the Spring of 2020 our supply system to a serious spike on certain items, like flour, yeast, and salt. During the lockdown, we weren't able to go into bakeries so they started selling their baking supplies such as flour. Also, people started to learn how to make sourdough. Canning products took a hit. It got to the point that it was hard to find jars. The company that owns Ball, Kerr, and Bernardin tried to withhold products until spring. That only means one thing, they had planned on jacking up the price and possibly lowering the quality so they could make more products. I don't have proof that was their end goal, but it's a pattern I have observed with other companies. Of course, we had and still have lamestream media scaring the piss out of people. Well, the ones that watch it. Meanwhile, the demand for the above items went through the roof. The price for meat has gone up incredibly. From mid-June till early August Kroger couldn't get their brand of large box instant mashed potatoes. And my daughter told me that they are getting two deliveries on Sundays instead of twice a week. There some things their warehouses are out of and have no idea of when they will get in again. Now comes the much needed 'normalcy'. They talk about we need confidence that things will return to normal. I don't see it happening. I do feel as if we are in our new normal.
They talked about the consequences we are seeing right now of the lockdowns and shutdown of the economy. More people became very frugal and purpose-driven in their spending. That hasn't saved them from foreclosure or evictions. We have seen unemployment that was close to what the Great Depression had by the end of December. With 2021 just cranking up there were 140k jobs lost by the first week of January. These jobs were held by women. I am not going into depth because the majority of these jobs were the typical Holiday Season jobs that end after Christmas. A job is a job. Now that Silicone Valley has people working from home, many are making the move to exit California and New York City. While the pandemic was one aspect of people leaving states like California and New York (mainly NYC) also has some of the highest corporate and property taxes in America. The cost of living in these two states is out of control.
The next issue is automation versus physical labor. Yes, robots are indeed cheaper. No, they don't need things like sick leave, maternity leave, and vacations. However, the robots require human labor in terms of maintenance. So, why not just pay people to do the jobs. Yes, people are a high maintenance pain in the ass, and they can be down right stupid. We can be entertaining as well.
The last section is on the path forward for future growth. The second paragraph would make most well-adjusted people shake their heads and ask "WTF???". They talk about taking 'advantage' of the current crisis to create a fairer and greener economy. These two are the kind of people who would think about shoving a lite firecracker up a cat's ass as they walk away and laugh. I do agree that we need a major change in the way corporations to treat people. The 'profit over people' model must be done away with. It's barbaric and completely outdated. It's the reason we have such a major gap between those like Elon Musk's family and those like the homeless Adams families. If we want to make progress in this area we can't wait for the writers of this twisted book to present the alternatives. No! They are a part of the problem, not the solution.
The bottom line is this, you and I can’t wait for the writers of this book to give their solutions. Their solutions will work for them and not us. While I agree that we can’t continue the ‘profit over people’ model that society has been operating in for the last hundred or so years. That must change and now. How! The only thing I can think of is for us to come together and pull our skills to rebuild society.
Bibliography
Schwab, K., & Malleret, T. (2020). COVID-19: The Great Reset. Forum Publishing.
https://youtu.be/aAqR5FHeVKE
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