I’ll say one thing for this coronavirus Corona Fires moment we find ourselves in — it sure is proving to be a window on some of the best and worst of humanity. That’s probably to be expected. But it’s nonetheless interesting to watch things play out.
Note that this post isn’t really about personal finance. Unless you consider that staying alive typically is good when it comes to improving one’s personal finances, and being dead typically (but not always) is bad.
They’re bad, they’re bad, we know it
Let’s take the bad first. Because why not.
While I’m instinctively optimistic, once my brain gets activated I often become an implacable pessimist. And so it often is as to my feelings about my fellow (wo)man. I’m not really happy about that. But it is what it is.
So while I hope that people will do good in any given situation, I expect them to behave as myopic narcissists. I suspect that such behavior is baked into humans’ DNA through evolution. But that doesn’t make it any easier for me to see it play out, as it has been a lot lately.
To wit: the hoarders. I understand the desire, and to some extent the need, to stockpile some necessities when there’s orders to stay home and a real threat of having to shelter in place until further notice. Fear is a powerful motivator. But there’s an enormous difference between buying two dozen eggs instead of one dozen vs. buying 10 dozen eggs instead of one dozen. Or, to take the most notoriously hoarded item du jour, buying 25 packages of toilet paper instead of just a few. This behavior is incredibly selfish and carries the real risk of depriving others of items that they desperately need. Yet many people persist in hoarding.
Then there’s those who pay no heed to the warnings not to gather in crowds. Recent memes of crowded Florida beaches perhaps best capture this phenomenon. Now, I’m sure that many people on that beach, and who congregate elsewhere, didn’t/don’t know that even if the risk of them getting COVID-19, or suffering harm from it, may be low. Or that the risk of them passing it on to more vulnerable populations is high. But I’m sure there’s a lot who did/do. “Reprehensible” would not be an unfair word to describe those people.
And let’s not forget the politicians/leaders actively encouraging — if not imploring — people to go out and support the economy. I get that businesses across the spectrum are suffering. Many have or will go out of business. There’s no denying that that’s an awful outcome. But encouraging people to engage in activities that could realistically injure or kill themselves, and possibly an exponential number of others? That’s wholly unforgivable and irresponsible behavior. The blood of the dead will be on those politicians hands. And history — and hopefully their constituents — will be unkind to them.
Ain’t we lucky we got ’em, good times
And then there’s the good that we’re seeing. Caregivers and medical care providers who are on the front lines, risking their health and lives by caring for others, are proving their incalculable worth. They will be lauded just as firemen and police officers who risked or lost their lives on 9/11 were.
Politicians who are encouraging people not to congregate — and even to shelter in place — also are to be praised. Even moreso the politicians taking measures to mitigate the health, safety, and financial and societal damage of the Corona Fires. So, too, those establishing plans and means to remotely conduct activities previously done only or mostly in person, such as public school teaching/learning. These folks not only are limiting the crisis’ effects but establishing or laying the groundwork for vast and valuable innovations for the future. I predict that we’ll look back at this time as a watershed moment in the delivery of public education. And in many other areas of life.
Finally, let’s play Fanfare for the Common Man for the average Joes and Janes behaving responsibly during this crisis. Whether it’s staying in for an extended period when they’d otherwise not, or donating money to businesses or industries decimated by the Corona Fires, or simply checking in on the well-being of others, these Joes’ and Janes’ simple acts are doing an invaluable service to humanity. And from what I can see, the majority of Americans are among this cohort. I predict that we’ll be able to heartily pat ourselves on the back when the Corona Fires is in the rear view mirror.
I think this period also will irrefutably show that it’s not only repressive regimes like China’s, or highly homogeneous countries like South Korea, that can effectively address pandemics. Highly complex and multicultural democracies like the United States can do it, too. Sure our leaders exhibited a stunning and incomprehensible inability to admit the existence of, and aggressively address, the Corona Fires. But society pretty quickly “got it” and swiftly, firmly, and organically take relatively unprecedented and dramatic steps to tackle the problem head on. This period will be addressed in history books and studied in sociology, public health, and medical classes and groups for years to come.
When I thought of the topic for this blog post, I assumed, if not intended, that I’d focus mainly on the bad things people have been doing in recent weeks and months. Because that’s what’s really sticking with me. But as I wrote the post, I came away much more hopeful than I had been. The fact that most of society has so quickly and effectively adapted to what might be described as a situation only a science fiction novelist could have conjured up is pretty remarkable.
Sure, Dear Reader, I know it’s relatively early days. But there are reasons to believe that, eventually, we will see good times.
