What We Are Learning During Covid

Covid has brought fear, lockdowns of varying degrees, a huge stop to economic and social activity of all kinds at a scale one wouldn’t have imagined even as a worst case scenario even 6 months ago.

Had posted this as a thought (that even I could not have imagined would ever come true) in November, and the reactions speak for themselves.

It has amazed the world thanks to the rapid cleanup of our rivers, our cities’ air and more that has happened merely because of the stoppage of almost all economic activity.

People have been working remotely, lost jobs, and a large number have “gone back home” because of choice or desperation. Many countries are seeing death in their circles. Many countries have become a lot more welfare oriented in these times.

What are the things we’re likely to learn as we live through these unimagined times?

• Money, titles and positions, ambition could mean lesser. Humans will overall forget this, but for many, individually, this may stick.
• It does come down to food, water, the ability to manage your waste, access to free open spaces, sunlight, nature and other such basics irrespective of who you are, wherever you are.
• For countries and governance structures, publicly funded and better healthcare may become an important focus point. Populations might force a better spread of these.
• Overall — including the above points — resilience may start to trump other parameters as people start worrying about the reliability of supply chains and solutions from elsewhere.
• One’s attitude towards death and loss may change. The west will surely become more pragmatic, or like they’ve called it in the past — “ fatalist” towards and about individual instances death and pain.
• We just might — and I’m hoping here — start to appreciate cleaner, unpolluted commons since many have almost seen those at the current levels for the first time ever. Will we do this enough to pause industry or ask more of it wrt a cleanup?
• We have definitely realised all that we thought we needed, we don’t. Consumption will fall, and not just because of job/wage loss.
• The spending vs savings ratio graph will start swinging up again. Many are realising the value of creating a personal runway.
• Folks have re-calibrated “living expenses” very quickly. Those who might have once spent 5000/- on a dinner easily are easily imagining surviving a whole month on 15–20000/-
• A lot of folks will realise the security and reliability that “back home” provides, especially in rural/small-town India. Given a lot of skills, ideas now seeded in the city, this could even kick off a sort of a revival of otherwise worsening rural India and make it more attractive.
• Many who have gotten used to remote work will continue to use that option every now and then, and even for extended periods of time from remote locations. (I seriously think this might happen — and am even thinking of offering affordable longer stay plans at Linger locations for this!)
• Many city folks — some already thinking about this earlier — will consider moving to smaller, quieter places including farms. The desire for reliable access to good food, water, clean air, less density, a healthier, fitter lifestyle, combined with less social pressure to achieve the goals one chased pre-Covid because everyone else did, and the ability to work remotely will surely help this. If rural India starts having more skills and interesting crafts and ability than earlier, this will become a flood. (Shameless plug : Beforest can help!)
• We might just start appreciating those we considered had “lesser” skills and value and pay for those skills more. This will be a much needed start to reverse some of the massive inequality we have created as part of the current economic models.
• Similarly, we might focus more on the local, the nearby — products, services, self managed systems — healthcare, energy, education etc.
• Who knows, our overall energy footprint might fall permanently!
• There may be suspicion and avoidance of “strangers” as well, sadly. China will likely be at the receiving end for a bit, for starters.
• Many a product/need/job/role will get eliminated as companies too realize they could do with fewer folks. At the start of this I heard of a cross continent set of flights for a major meeting slowly reducing to an online one with a fraction of the participants who “really needed to be part of the call”. On the other hand, new, hopefully more locally relevant ones, will pop up.

Couple of things that got said in recent conversations :

“Through market crashes, sectoral shrinkage, job losses, wages reduction and all that, one thing that doesn’t collapse is a resilient ecosystem. Let’s talk ROI on that!”

“Our factories and supply chains are awesome at producing more and more and more of the stuff we don’t need at an ever increasing cost of the stuff we critically depend on. This has to change. We just have to need less. Our ‘economy’ cannot exist around the production that furiously destroys all ecosystems that sustain us, and eventually us, as well. It’s not a smart way to live, collectively.”

Not saying it will all happen — but these are all possibilities. Some that I’d love to see happen, and others that I think will happen anyway.