“When this Coronavirus scare is all said and done, the vast majority of you will go back to your cubicles, line up at the metered ramps, sign up for $150,000 in student loans for worthless degrees, and rejoice that you can outsource the raising of your children to the public schools. We as a society will have learned nothing and will plug ourselves right back into The Matrix, complaining about the same ole problems we were before until we are all dead.”
Back into the Matrix? Hell I’m still working full tilt.
The only change in my life is 25% of 35 years of savings is now called “unrealized losses”.
Of course.What the hell else did you expect,cap’n?
Six decades of “education” is NOT going to be swept aside by a few months of a moderate crisis. This ain’t “the Blitz”.
1. Free education:
Your boss did not demand a college degree as proof you were smart. (If you were all that smart, he was sure, he’d be working for you. Even if he wanted to know, an IQ test would have done the job.) He wanted it as proof you knew the right sort of people and could regurgitate the current version of PC ideology on command.
Colleges whose purpose was to teach somebody what he needed to know to have a chance at working indoors are doomed—in part because those jobs henceforth will only be open to people with a native command of Mandarin (if they don’t actually live in China—see below)
The Ivy Leagues, where little emperors and empresses went to make friends with or hook up with other little emperors and empresses, will emerge stronger than ever.
2. The end of commutes:
What can be done at home can be done in China or India. The current grand experiment in working from home will, in the long run, reduce the opportunities for north Americans of European descent to work indoors, not increase them.
3. The end of the housing shortage:
The shopping malls that are not converted into Amazon warehouses will not be turned into affordable housing. They will be bulldozed or simply abandoned, converted into the dens of the homeless—21st century Hoovervilles.
Luxury hotels in cities where there is demand for housing year round will be converted into luxury apartments for the well-connected. You will not be able to afford them with the proceeds of your new job at an Amazon warehouse.
In north America, truly affordable housing will continue to be found only where it is found now—far off-grid or in the poorest and most dangerous parts of the continent’s cities. Living is cheap there for a reason.
4. Vulture socialism:
I don’t know what else to call the Captain’s mad scheme for Uncle Sam to buy the S&P 500 with funny money at knockdown prices. Re-sell at a profit? To whom?
Rio Can, which is a very big Canadian real estate investment trust is currently knocking down some of its shopping malls to build housing on the sites. This is a long term project for them and I am sure other REITs will follow,
Captain Poopy Pants (AKA “asshole consulting”) who can’t hold a relationship with a woman and raise children of his own, bitches about parents sending kids to public school. Change the post title to IRRELEVANT RANT. Yawn.
Thanks for that link.
Interesting take and I believe a 100% adequate prediction about us unnecessarily pouring ourselves back into cars / transit in a month or so to be under someone’s thumb. Like Paul above, I’m going full tilt towards freedom 95. Doesn’t matter if I do it here at home or in some germ factory downtown.
The opportunity to turn offices to housing seems to not be practical. In Calgary, with 25%+ vacancy for the last 5 years, many have discussed transitioning dead office space to condos. Apparently the office codes and the condo codes are very different. Not being an architect or engineer, (and therefore ignorant but willing to understand), structurally, I can’t fathom how you would retrofit the plumbing for multiple units into a floor which currently has two or three bathrooms. I’m sure it’s possible but good luck working with the bureaucrats on the building codes.
I practiced commercial interior design in Toronto for 25 years before moving back West. During the 1990’s, many office buildings from the 1950’s and the 1960’s were being converted to luxury condo’s or apartment blocks because they were in great locations – St. Clair Avenue and Yonge Street, Yonge Street and Davisville, near Subway stops. The buildings were no longer viable as office buildings because they needed new windows, roofing systems, new elevators and did not meet the needs for modern offices with computers.
Yes, you do need good city planners who are willing to work with the developer to ensure this happens, but it is very do-able.
Rio Can, which is a very big Canadian real estate investment trust is currently knocking down some of its shopping malls to build housing on the sites. This is a long term project for them and I am sure other REITs will follow,
Well, we can hope. I was in the LCBO today and apparently there’s been a total Nazi takeover. This is all ****ing ridiculous. I said so from day one and nothing has changed my mind.