Surviving the Pandemic !

It is now very obvious that the outcome of this Covid-19 virus is going to be a huge surge in unemployment and it is quite likely that the numbers will replicate the levels last experienced in the " Great Depression " of the 1930's.   The need to stop people congregating as a way of spreading the infection is being enforced by regulations and it is anticipated that unemployment levels will quickly rise to about fifteen percent of the population.

Even in this early stage we are seeing long lines around Centrelink offices as people register for the relief the government is offering.  Both phone and internet access have crashed under the volume of traffic and entry to Centrelink offices is being regulated to ensure a one metre gap between customers.  It is inevitable that there will be a time delay than could run to a month before the unemployment benefit of $1100 a fortnight starts to reach recipients.

Our main political parties may disagree on the details but they are united on the fact that this is not just an Australian problem but a world Pandemic  that is going to cause countless deaths.  The danger is that small, single issue political parties that gain little support at the ballot box will use this issue to promote their populist solutions.  Both the far right and the far left favour extremist regimes in power which reject democracy and rule by force.  At a time of crisis their persuasive promises can have attraction for desperate people.

Unfortunately, this crisis will permanently change the Australia we knew.  A lot of businesses that were only marginally profitable will go out of business and not recover and new trends will emerge in both sporting activities and general business. Recovery will be in the hands of the entrepreneur and this will be reflected in our forms of entertainment, eating habits and way we do business.  We will need to develop new skills to blend back into this new workforce.

The extent our way of life changed was sudden, but the recovery will be protracted.  Hopefully, a vaccine will tame Covid-19 and the infections will cease but the job market will take time to develop back to a normal level and a lot of what we considered " permanent " jobs will have failed to reappear. Before this crash the " casual " and the " gig economy " were fast replacing the old style of work we had experienced in our past.

As dismal as things appear, there is every prospect that there will be a jobs recovery.  We will need to be patient and not swayed by radical ideas.  The " working Australia " that emerges will be what we put in place when the dust from Covid-19 settles  !