INDEX

Saturday October 17, 2020

The real cost of the virus

There is little doubt that the coming economic slump will be the most severe that anyone alive has experienced. There will be mass unemployment, homelessness, insecurity, youth suicides and family violence on a previously unknown scale. That's not to mention the lost opportunities of a generation whose education has been thrown into chaos and whose career opportunities are becoming frighteningly narrow or non existent. Food banks are already over worked with little chance that things will improve for years to come. Many will regard this nightmare scenario as over dramatic and scare mongering. They will point to the optimists who predict that sectors like entertainment, travel, pubs and restaurants, holidays and high street shopping will bounce back quickly. I hope they do though the massive closures and job losses already announced in these sectors suggest that even if they do, what survive will be significantly less than before the virus. But this is not the point. What counts is the demand that has been sucked out of the economy by the disappearance of these sectors. Holiday workers thrown into poverty can not buy new shoes or even computer games and phones. But the virus is an external threat. Governments did not create it and it is going to be there even if like Sweden they adopt a minimalist approach to it.

Posted by Jonathan Brind.

INDEX

Saturday October 17, 2020