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Thread: What changes do you see coming in society.....

  1. #11
    Senior Member Teacher Terry's Avatar
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    Interesting that people pick things like international travel and say they hope there’s less. That’s like me saying I hope people give up diving. Easy to pick things you don’t enjoy. I think restaurants will be back because many kinds of food doesn’t taste good by the time you get it home. Plus people want to be out and it’s part of the experience to be waited on.

  2. #12
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    Interesting that people pick things like international travel and say they hope there’s less. That’s like me saying I hope people give up diving. Easy to pick things you don’t enjoy.
    on what basis do you say that? I might very well enjoy it. The reality is it's environmentally harmful. If a luxury once tasted becomes a necessity perhaps Nancy Reagan was ultimately right in her approach ("just say no"). I hope people learn to enjoy staying home more and want a rich life lived locally, but hopefully are allowed more human interaction than now, because hey that part isn't so ideal. Unlike travel human contact is a basic need (for some more than others as some are introverts, but still).

    But for any good that might come, some environmentally beneficial ideas are probably on their death beds for awhile: public transit almost certainly and possibly although less so, urban density (versus sprawl) as well . There is happy medium of medium density apartments I believe but those haven't been built since like the 60s.
    Trees don't grow on money

  3. #13
    Senior Member Teacher Terry's Avatar
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    Traveling internationally is a rich, rewarding experience. Other countries, culture, food, architecture are very different than our own. Many people love to travel and that’s a major part of their retirement. I also belong to early retirement.org and many have lots of money and do a ton of traveling. I think people that say in a cavalier manner traveling isn’t important either don’t like it or can’t afford it. Many there have a lot more money than we do but I enjoy reading about their experiences and they are great for suggestions on what is worth seeing in other countries. We had a trip of a lifetime planned for a month in August. We would have been seeing 5 countries and seeing family in Poland. Of course we aren’t going now. We haven’t taken a trip in 18 months and it’s important to us.

  4. #14
    Senior Member SteveinMN's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ApatheticNoMore View Post
    There is happy medium of medium density apartments I believe but those haven't been built since like the 60s.
    They can't be built any more. Zoning ordinances have seen to it, with the unintended (?) result that the only apartments that are financially viable are the huge complexes that dwarf anything next to them (besides another gargantuan complex). We could undo a lot of that -- if we could deal with all the pearl-clutching. But we can't.
    Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington

  5. #15
    Senior Member JaneV2.0's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by SteveinMN View Post
    They can't be built any more. Zoning ordinances have seen to it, with the unintended (?) result that the only apartments that are financially viable are the huge complexes that dwarf anything next to them (besides another gargantuan complex). We could undo a lot of that -- if we could deal with all the pearl-clutching. But we can't.
    Maybe the coming lack of population will help.

  6. #16
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    More hospitals will be bankrupt... not because there is no need for hospital care, but because hospitals will be unable to recoup the costs.

    One area of concern is the newly unemployed, who have not obtained health insurance. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimated that the treatment of one self-pay patient for, say, COVID-19 could amount to a hospital bill of about $240,000. Very few if any of the newly unemployed would have the means to pay.

  7. #17
    Senior Member SteveinMN's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JaneV2.0 View Post
    Maybe the coming lack of population will help.
    Unlikely. Too many stakeholders who won't let go. Banks financing the structure, cities dreaming of population growth, fire marshals (gotta get the biggest fire truck they've got around every side of the building), cities that require environmental studies and traffic studies, ADA compliance (try piloting a wheelchair around those 60s apartments), parking requirements (including the need to avoid surface lots), the need to subsidize market rate units with "affordable" units, ...

    Not that we necessarily want to do away with any of that but all of those requirements together create an environment in which the only way to make the thing profitable is to make it huge, build it cheap, and then beg for tax policy changes. Not conducive to building on a human scale. Or for longevity.
    Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington

  8. #18
    Yppej
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    Amazon will do better at the expense of brick and mortar stores. Amazon and the 1% will successfully deploy tax dodging strategies and the little people will pick up the tab for the stimulus plans. The unemployed will see this, say it's not fair, and do odd jobs off the books. The shadow economy will grow. And either Trump or Biden will do little to nothing to help regular people whilst protecting Wall Street and special interests, including an increasingly powerful medical industrial complex that will capitalize on fear to fend off reforms. Things will get so bad as we wallow in a depression that in 2024 an FDR type will arise to co-opt a growing socialist movement with universal health care and a few other programs already proven in other countries. The special interests will cry that the sky is falling, but in fact this will be when the clouds in the sky lift and things turn around.

  9. #19
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    Quite a few bankruptcy filings, as well as a baby boom, and divorces going up. Already heard from law enforcement locally, the numbers of domestic violence going up from people who don't want to be around each other. (wondering about one particular case, where a couple was in the middle of separating/moving apart/starting a divorce, when the order hit)
    At least locally, I think some restaurant CHAIN'S will close doors on some locations. Other locations will get busier. Some businesses may fail entirely, and end up being bought out. Others, that are doing well right now, are looking at remodeling types of stuff, that they would normally have to close for.
    A spike in taxes, to pay for this, but how bad is yet to be determined. Possible inflation as things open and who knows what will be "back to normal" and what will be hard to get for at least a while.
    A closure of several mom and pop garages. Essential right now, however, people are currently driving less.
    Rebuilding of the medical stockpiles that were allowed to disappear as too expensive (political thing more).

    Lots of lawsuits. Everything from evictions, to suing school districts that required Zoom be used during this time, where minors information gets harvested by Facebook.
    Probably more Dave Ramsey listeners, LOL. Where people realize they do need an emergency fund.
    In families, where multiple people work for the same business, more diversity in work.

  10. #20
    Senior Member catherine's Avatar
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    Here's an interesting set of charts with data from which to speculate on how things will change after the virus. Despite the Trump bump (which is I suspect is only temporarily inverted these days) these charts show a more complete picture of the economic health of our country. I hope there's no paywall. It's an interesting set of data.

    https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...gtype=Homepage
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