A New Land, A New Climate

I remember thinking a few months ago how I could not see how things could keep going as they were. I'm not a mystic, I just spend too much time in my car alone, okay?

I have lived through the Tech Bubble and the Great Recession and was unsure as to where exactly everything had gone. With the Tech Bubble of the late 1990's, everyone, and I really mean EVERYONE, seemed to be making some sort of money off the stock market. I knew people who were working countless hours on tech startups because they hoped to make the next big thing. Well, alas, they didn't, and the market crashed leaving many in the dust. But the market was humming underneath with the mortgage debts that had been turned into bonds, which would lead to the epic collapse at the end of the first decade of the new millennia.

While myself and everyone I knew was hit by that crash, there was not this feeling of absolute stopping and reset. The momentum of the past decades was still able to go forward, all of us being enchanted and distracted (read: "Numbed") by the narcotic bliss of desire on demand with the new digital paradise. There was some poverty, but nothing like the black and white photos of bread lines in the 1930's. I never remember hearing a blues song about the hard times, only computer perfect simulacra of Music the was defined as rock, pop, hip-hop, and rap. (Classical Music was dead. Don't believe me? Okay, fine. Name me three living classical composers that are not making soundtracks for movies or video games and are played regularly by major orchestras..... See, I told you.) There was a malaise and depression among the youth due to college debt ("a life tax" as it has been called) and most were treading water. This was not a good sign as before the last two bubbles burst, money was flowing like there was no tomorrow. Everyone was talking about changing jobs for more money like they were talking about getting new shoes. This time, people were doing okay, but, outside of the financial gods, it was not that great.

So now, here we are. Unlike in The Plague, I don't see people spending lots of money as the narrator says people did. Alcohol, to be sure, is selling well. But sales of takeout from restaurants has slid down rather hard. I guess people thought that this would last three weeks and we would all be back out the doors with new money coming in. Well, I believe that people see money getting tight and are stopping the part food orders.

Every economist and financial reporter seems to be in agreement that there will be a massive recession coming up once people are allowed back to work. Including that, the medical professionals are saying the next wave will most likely hit in the winter, meaning more of the same.

We are not withstanding a storm in our home country, we are in a whole new land with a new climate.