A Race to Reinvent Ourselves and Our Systems
Flattening the infection curve inevitably steepens the macroeconomic recession curve
The Covid-19 pandemic discussion has been raging at full throttle across the world for weeks now; from extraneous blame games unwittingly played on social media to opportunistic misdirected schemes of profit, greed, and perpetuation in power that are hatched behind closed doors.
The Center for Economic Policy and Research of the European Union released in haste in early March 2020 an eBook, COVID-19 economic crisis: Act fast and do whatever it takes. The eBook argues that “flattening the infection curve inevitably steepens the macroeconomic recession curve.”
Though the “economists say it’s still too early to tell how bad the economic damage will be, they’re certain it will be large — the pandemic is destroying lives and livelihoods around the world.”
“The measures that are seen as necessary to contain the virus — quarantine, physical distancing, school, and university closures, shutdowns of non-essential businesses, asking people to work from home, [daily wage-earners’ lost opportunity for income] — are bringing economies to a screeching halt”; to the bottom of society’s pyramid, misery.
Governments are now scrambling in a race to flatten two curves: the medical and the economic. A choice between which must be flattened first: human lives over the economy; economy over lives — a seeming paradox.
This then begs the questions: What if we can flatten both curves simultaneously? When? How can it be done? For how long? Which begs the bigger question: What if after this human episode, we radically start to look into each element in our systems and change them?
The race is to learn from the lessons of human history. Those that were repeatedly taught, repeatedly experienced, repeatedly happening.
A race between knowing why, despite good intentions, we are not able to solve our own-created problems with the same fixes that backfire, and taking actions that direct solutions for people and with people.
A race toward actions that work for all in the long-haul.
Originally published at http://namenloseleute.wordpress.com on March 24, 2020.
