The coronavirus pandemic on vulnerable companies
The article “What Does Life Look Like?” by David Leonhardt predicts the future outcomes from the coronavirus pandemic by 2022. He states the pandemic could affect the world like World War II and the Great Depression. Until a vaccine is established, there will be waves of illness, loss of life, and unpredictability. Past the experiences of lockdown and new outbreaks, life could go back to normal. However, this will not be the old normal, but a new normal with a remolded economy as the war and depression did. The coronavirus pandemic will be recollected as an important worldwide experience since World War II and the Great Depression. The pandemic will cause vulnerable companies to shut down, change habits, and politics will affect the structuring of the economy.
Vulnerable companies will be forced to shut down. When the economy is weak, people tend to purchase goods and services that are essential and those that are a cheaper substitute (Leonhardt 2020). The local newspapers will experience further job losses than those suffered from the Google and Facebook takeover. Also, traditional departmental stores will lose their significance to online retailers with the reduced in-person shopping contributed by the virus. The higher education industry will be negatively affected as they have lost revenue due to their closure. Also, due to the economy’s recession, the national budget will face cuts reducing college funding. This will make it difficult for students from disadvantaged backgrounds to graduate.
The pandemic will alter people’s habits. The physical presence of students and teachers in a classroom environment has been replaced by remote learning. However, students, educators, and parents have regarded the new learning process to be disappointing. For white-collar workers, it has been a good experience working from home and carry out meetings through Zoom, FaceTime, or Google Meet. The new trends seem to become the new normal that people will have to adapt as companies such as Barclays have stated their consideration to use less office space than the usual prior to the pandemic. Working from home is more efficient since no time is spent on traffic, it is more flexible, and online meetings can also connect more people.
With the pandemic, politics will structure the economy. With the previous pandemics, politics have greatly impacted the economy. The War made Abraham Lincoln and his partners generate a railroad connecting continents and created a nationwide network for public higher learning institutions. The Great Depression brought about federal laws decreased inequality (). The housing crisis led to the election of a democratic head of state and congress that expanded insurance on health to many people. With the coming United States presidential elections, there is a possibility of the elected president to come into the office with agendas that will ultimately have an impact on the declining economy.
The coronavirus pandemic will lead to the closure of weak companies, alteration of habits, and restructuring of the economy by politics. Due to economic difficulties, people will acquire goods and services that are important and those that are a cheaper substitute. This, in turn, will lead to companies like the local newspapers, traditional departmental stores, and universities shut down. It will also change habits to adapt to the new way of doing things such as online working and meeting for businesses and remote learning for students. Besides, politics will mold the economy as experienced with past crises. The coronavirus pandemic has an effect globally.