agip wrote:
Dr. Racket wrote:
It's gonna turn out 10 years down the road that Western governments handled the pandemic a lot better than currently reported, all things considered.
(no one wants to talk about it, for good reason, but losing 500,000 elderly people could be a boost to the economy rather than a loss. Although I could be wrong. Could equal a quadzillion less medicare spending and massively less SS paid out, and any inheritances will be spent sooner rather than later
I'm sure there are other issues at play here though. 500,000 fewer consumers paying sales tax is not a good thing, for example.
eh, maybe. How much sales tax are they paying in that somewhat morbid thought experiment? It's probably a wash, but keep in mind in that scenario a lot of inheritance will get handed down as well and that absolutely increases social mobility. But overall, like I said, it's probably a wash between the pros and the cons.
Real story is just the combination of monetary and and fiscal policy. There could be some other aesthetic shifts that end up coming out of this as well that will be interesting (more active and health conscious lifestyles, less cynicism, etc) - tbd on that but I'll for sure be reading some good books in 15 years