The Origins of Change

It occurred to me to say this: I am not writing this blog because I know anything about what the New World will look like. Just asking questions. Maybe building a framework that will help me mange information and events as time goes on.

One option, of course, is no change. New cases and deaths are reduced to very manageable levels; the virus falls from the front page, little by little, and we look around and realize that the whole world is just like it was before. Institutions rebuilt or unchanged; health systems unimproved; financial markets rebounded; climate change chugging along. No real change in the way the world works.

I forgot who said “Don't let a good disaster go to waste,” meaning that when a crisis upends everything, you've got a chance to put it back together differently. It would be a shame if, say, December of 2020 was indistinguishable from December of 2019.

It seems there are two ways the New World can come about – one is the result of changes which are unavoidable (greater national debt; some disruption in public school and higher education; some small businesses dying), and the other way is to plan and execute change in a purposeful way.

I can think of a whole lot of the latter. For instance, we can expand and incorporate many of the changes already in place: guaranteed income; online learning; extension of sick leave to employees who have never had it; less unnecessary travel; reduction in consumerism; widely expanding the opportunity to work from home. Make these temporary measures permanent, to the extent it is in the best interests of the most people.

Most, if not all, of these changes will be phased out when the virus fades away if no one makes the effort to make them a permanent part of our culture and our economy. It will be interesting to see who rises to the challenge.