The Corona Crisis – What’s on the other side?
The corona crisis has thought us a lot about how fragile our economic model is in times of a crisis.
This crisis has been devastating to those who have paid the highest possible price and their loved ones who have lost a dear family member or friend. The crisis has been harsh for the world economy, but we will get back on our feet.
Will we learn anything from this crisis?
What will the future look like? Have we learned anything? Will we change the way we live our lives? Or will we just return to our hamster wheels?
Numerous influential people have recently reflected upon the possibilities of some changes that might come in the aftermath of this crisis.
Inequality
Within most societies, as well as between different societies, there is a stark contrast between rich and poor. As Thomas Piketty points out in his book “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” (2013), this gap will continue to increase as the rate of capital return is persistently greater than the rate of wage growth.
Piketty now gets support from Morgan Stanley, an organisation not usually associated with social justice crusades.
The coronavirus pandemic has exposed large differences among workers around the globe. Looking at the US, for example, highlights that “we are all in this together”, is just working in the Gucci commercial. The high paid white-collar workers with fixed benefits feel secure about their incomes from their home offices. On the other hand, we have the “critical” workers such as personnel that care for children, disabled and elderly or factory workers who provide us with food and other necessities. These are all low-income occupations with little flexibility and fairly low job security.
