The Economy Won’t Go Back to ‘Normal’ Any Time Soon

Filed in National by on April 8, 2020

Many conservatives seem to think that once we pass the peak of the pandemic, The Economy (Peace Be Upon It) will reopen and things will go back to “normal” so Trump can triumph. They fail to grasp that even once restrictions are lifted, a significant percentage of people will not go back to life as it was. Over-60s, in particular, will remain at higher risk of contracting serious cases of the virus and will behave accordingly.

Until there is a vaccine for this, I won’t be sitting in a movie theater or a restaurant or the crowd at a ballgame, and I think a lot of others will react the same way. In short, there’s going to be an economic contraction that continues for months after the pandemic ends — certainly through the election.

tl;dr: No economic rebound in time to save Trump’s fat ass.

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  1. puck says:

    Trump has lost the “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” question, which was his best argument for re-election.

  2. Jason330 says:

    Trump, the media and even Joe Biden will cling to any bit of “normalcy” like it is a bobbing cello case in the wake of the Titanic.

    Americans are very susceptible to mass hallucinations. When he declares victory, 54% of Americans will cheer like motherfuckers.

  3. GeoBumm says:

    Not to mention, the economy may not go back to ‘normal’ by choice. I am looking at a furlough in the upcoming weeks. But even I am enjoying how quiet it is without the daily overflights of planes into PHL (and I love the sound of jet engines), much reduced traffic noises, how clear the air has been, how I see so many people I never met before walking to and from the park. This could be one of those events that shows people they don’t need that new car, other big purchases and it’s OK to get off the ever revolving hamster wheel of work and consumerism that our ‘job creators’ tell us is necessary for society to function. And once folks are focused on working at home and there is an even LARGER glut of empty office spaces they will focus on redeveloping those areas and lay off putting a building on every open piece of land until New Castle and Chadds Ford is nothing but a large slab of pavement.
    Probably not. But here’s to hoping it’s a transformative life event.

    • Alby says:

      What you say about commercial real estate could be a real game-changer, especially in cities with high rents. If all that office space were converted to housing, people might be able to afford living in downtowns again.

      This doesn’t apply much to Wilmington, but NYC, LA, San Francisco, Seattle — it could be really transformative in such places.

  4. I don’t see how any sort of mass gatherings can take place until a vaccine is found and until we all get inoculated. My concert-producing days might be over–and not by choice.

  5. Mouse says:

    Eastern Sussex County is quickly becoming an ugly urbanized treeless asphalt hell so farmers can sell out and developers can toss up the same 4 models of soulless plastic generic Stepford houses in every new neighborhood and out of state retirees can move here for cheap property taxes.

  6. bamboozer says:

    Some things will go back to what they were, some will take time and somethings are gone forever. Until there is a proven vaccine many will not risk a crowd, how long it will take is pure speculation at this point. People may lose the habit of going out to bars and restaurants and I suspect home deliveries of all sorts will rise. As for the economy we’ll get a humdinger of a recession as bad as 2008 and perhaps much worse. We’ll be lucky if things recover in 2022, and I don’t feel lucky at all.