05-03-2021, 03:47 AM
I feel similar looking back on it all now in 2021.
In the moment 2008 felt like 'the big one' but now we got COVID-19 which is still ongoing after over a whole year. When is the last time we had this level of disruption in the US? WW2? GD? 1918? Let's think about it: on COVID alone, we had over a billion kids out of school worldwide for at weeks to months on end along with all that brought, companies & stores closing up either for months or for good, with millions of people working from home & some possibly wanting to stay that way even after COVID, the whole economic side of things with US weekly new unemployment claims still well over pre-pandemic levels for over a year straight, no-one seeing each other (of course due to COVID), red/blue split on some people in total denial even now of how bad the virus is and others still super-scared of variants even after being vaccinated, and on & on. Next we had the killing of George Floyd & everything that came after that. Then wildfire & hurricane season with more hurricanes formed than any prior recorded season. Election aftermath including of course events of 2021-01-06. Things now finally are starting to seem like we're going to make it through with a lot of vaccines rolling out with high uptake, but all bets are off on whether they will continue to work as well on newer variants going forwards. Good thing booster shots are in the works as we speak. I think for us city-dwellers the damage may have already been done as some places already experienced an exodus out of big cities to cheaper quieter locales. My generation the Millennials are in that spot of wanting more land for kids or just a calmer daily life anyway. Throw WFH into the mix and a suburb with train access to the city may be better than living directly in a city in some tiny apartment anyway. There may be a couple more economic bubbles bursting soon, too. The college tuition bubble has been growing to dizzying heights for years now, to the point where I hear about people in the generation younger than me questioning going to college if they can't get in on just grants or scholarships. One may indeed make more money over a lifetime from university education but before that comes landing a few good jobs after college 1st, which may require some luck - an element the US doesn't like to talk about. What happens when the college tuition bubble pops?
But maybe I am totally wrong. Maybe COVID is the end of this saeculum's Crisis and nothing else super-crazy is coming in the 2020s before the High of beyond. Was the 1930s similar to the 2010s after the 1st couple years where in our time 2008/2009 was the crash then a decade of just regular life just with less money before the big society-changing event, only theirs was WW2 & ours is COVID?
In the moment 2008 felt like 'the big one' but now we got COVID-19 which is still ongoing after over a whole year. When is the last time we had this level of disruption in the US? WW2? GD? 1918? Let's think about it: on COVID alone, we had over a billion kids out of school worldwide for at weeks to months on end along with all that brought, companies & stores closing up either for months or for good, with millions of people working from home & some possibly wanting to stay that way even after COVID, the whole economic side of things with US weekly new unemployment claims still well over pre-pandemic levels for over a year straight, no-one seeing each other (of course due to COVID), red/blue split on some people in total denial even now of how bad the virus is and others still super-scared of variants even after being vaccinated, and on & on. Next we had the killing of George Floyd & everything that came after that. Then wildfire & hurricane season with more hurricanes formed than any prior recorded season. Election aftermath including of course events of 2021-01-06. Things now finally are starting to seem like we're going to make it through with a lot of vaccines rolling out with high uptake, but all bets are off on whether they will continue to work as well on newer variants going forwards. Good thing booster shots are in the works as we speak. I think for us city-dwellers the damage may have already been done as some places already experienced an exodus out of big cities to cheaper quieter locales. My generation the Millennials are in that spot of wanting more land for kids or just a calmer daily life anyway. Throw WFH into the mix and a suburb with train access to the city may be better than living directly in a city in some tiny apartment anyway. There may be a couple more economic bubbles bursting soon, too. The college tuition bubble has been growing to dizzying heights for years now, to the point where I hear about people in the generation younger than me questioning going to college if they can't get in on just grants or scholarships. One may indeed make more money over a lifetime from university education but before that comes landing a few good jobs after college 1st, which may require some luck - an element the US doesn't like to talk about. What happens when the college tuition bubble pops?
But maybe I am totally wrong. Maybe COVID is the end of this saeculum's Crisis and nothing else super-crazy is coming in the 2020s before the High of beyond. Was the 1930s similar to the 2010s after the 1st couple years where in our time 2008/2009 was the crash then a decade of just regular life just with less money before the big society-changing event, only theirs was WW2 & ours is COVID?