sleepy
Well-Known Member
I have to admit that I'm part of the "Things will never be the same again" brigade. I don't have any vested interest in keeping things shut or wanting to prolong things the way they are but I can see that even if everything opens back up, things are not going to same as they were before. Peoples habits and how they interact with the world have changed considerably over the last 6 months. Like a few people have said, the genie's out of the bottle in terms of home working etc. and I can't see people stampeding to get back to the office or commuting again.
I've heard some people saying that they've actually found some unexpected benefits with remote working. I was talking to a woman in work last week who volunteers as a mediator in her spare time. She was saying that they've had to start doing mediation meetings through zoom since this started. Said she was dreading it at first but actually found it worked really well. Everyone involved is in their home environments and seems to feel more comfortable talking and generally it's not as strained. She said before the meetings were generally held in offices so that they were on neutral grounds and that before the meetings would start both parties would be in a waiting room together which just seemed to aggravate things.
We are probably on the way towards a recession but I think in some ways that it mightn't be as severe as people predict. I think the economy will adjust to the way things are now in time. That's just total speculation on my part and it may come back to bite me on the arse. But there is still money in the economy, people are just spending it in different ways than they were before.
For example, I'm just thinking of 2 conversations that I've had with people from down around the midlands over the last week or so. One guy I know is working in a clothes shop that does formal wear for men. They opened back up in June and things have been really quiet for them because no one's going to weddings or night clubs even so people aren't feeling the need to get fancy clothes. On the other hand, one of my friends works in a shed building company. He said they're fully booked up until March next year.
I've seen it with my own spending habits. I'm not buying takeaway coffees anymore or spending as much on petrol but I've been spending money on things like new running and workout gear. I've also bought more records in the last few months than I would have in the previous 3 years. I've also been making a point of buying music on bandcamp day to help support artists there where I wouldn't have had the disposable cash to do that before.
