CoronaWatch 2019 - 2024

[JazzFunk]

And let's not necessarily see self-isolating as a terrible, boring thing. I bloody love it!

Know how many good games I've got to play? Unwatched movies to watch? Amazing CDs to listen to? Brilliant books to read?

Thousands. Literally, thousands. Let's look at the reality. We all play games on here. It's not 'self-isolation', it's 'legitimised gaming time'. There is no better time to start SKYRIM!

[Neon Ignition]

Some back and forthing today and the parents have decided that they'd rather rearrange everything to fit JR1 and J2 in straight away than risk the school run so the kids are completely done with school here onwards and on their eternal summer hols.

Means that by and large - outside of supermarket runs - the only 2 likely risk areas are our workplace or my Dad's with ours the likeliest of the two. Another 10 days and there's a chance I can scale back to DEFCOM2 in the poll but who knows. Streets are mostly empty tonight, mostly just a few lone chavs out for a boy race on quiet roads.

[monel]

Two people I know., but rarely see, have symptoms and been isolated for a week. One is mild and the other has serious symptoms. They're not testing people but the second has been considered as having the virus.

People aren't taking distancing seriously, I know someone who attended a wedding and people are mixing with at risk relatives. A neighbouring area has had a hot spot with quite a few people ill. I tried not to worry but it seems the right measures weren't taken and many people just don't understand the risks of mixing freely.

I also worry that the economy is screwed, and then I think if this is what it takes to bring many economies down then we never had anything decent in place at all. Also, how can any party feel comfortable knowing they slowly smashed NHS services and were on the way to privatising them?

[fishbowlhead]

The lack of support for smaller businesses already is shocking.

Rate relief, ok. What about rent?

Wage relief, but only if they have or 111 line suspects they have corvid-19. In which case the whole business has to shut down due to quarantine rules.

What about you suppliers?

Taxes?


Either small business get a full bail out for all expenses while shut down or there all going under.

[dataDave]

I have no idea what's going on here either. I've lost all of my contracts and starting a new business seems very futile right now (two of my three leads from last week have already pulled out of an all-singing/dancing €50 per month website lease package...).

I feel like I'd be better spending my time learning how to hunt game instead.

[dvdx2]

Saw this on the news

“Officers from our Waterside Neighbourhood Policing Team attended St Columbs park this evening at about 8:30 after receiving reports of a large number of youths drinking near the running track.
Most of these youths ran off when we attended but some took the time to shout abuse at police, thinking it was hilarious to shout that they all had coronavirus before coughing over each other. ...”

I mean I did some pretty daft things as a teenager, but this really takes the penguin.

[JazzFunk]

I really feel sorry for you guys. One big ****ing horrible thing just sprung upon us, like some massive, filthy turd dumped straight out of the sky.

I just hope society can compose itself enough. Events like this give wankers a reason to be wankers.

Anyway, just having some 'worst case scenario' thinkage, we're all lovely peeps on here (even JAPSAC) and we're all valuable and - in some small way - a 'family'.

Serious love on here, peeps, this is an Oasis of Beauty!!!

[fishbowlhead]

Also to all the people that went down southend beach yesterday, you disgust me, your everything wrong with this country.

Police did nothing to break it up either.

[Asura]

I also worry that the economy is screwed, and then I think if this is what it takes to bring many economies down then we never had anything decent in place at all.

We have a society where, generally, things have tended to improve in many areas over the last few decades. Not universally, not by a long shot, but in some ways. Like, for instance, I haven't had a power cut in several years, and I haven't had consistent power cuts since back in the 80s. We take for granted that we have electricity. It's something we expect. I do this too.

But to give another example, in various places I've lived over the last few years, the local council has considered closing the nearby public library. Their logic behind this is always the same; that in this era where people have access to the internet, a physical library seems a bit old-fashioned and vestigial (to those who probably haven't set foot in one for 20 years). Putting aside that libraries serve many purposes these days beyond reference & books, these people are obviously forgetting that progress is a two-way street; it doesn't always go forwards. We can't guarantee that our access to information in 2030 will be the same or better than in 2020; it could just as easily slide backwards, and if that happens, we'll need resources like libraries. These are institutions which, once they go away, don't easily come back.

However, people approach this with an overly capitalist mindset. Libraries are an expenditure; sure, often they sell coffee etc. but that doesn't come close to covering their costs. Going by the profit motive, libraries are a terrible investment. However, they serve a purpose which doesn't easily fit into an aggressively optimised economy, and that puts the nose out of joint of some people who foolishly believe "the market provides".

So many of our systems are built like a house of cards. They work because people earn profit from them, but the moment that changes, you'll see them come tumbling down as their owners seek to isolate themselves from the damage rather than actually giving a **** about people or their work.

[Dogg Thang]

(to those who probably haven't set foot in one for 20 years)

And this is really what that example comes down to because you're right about their logic but also who they are and it's very much that basic thing - it doesn't affect me right now therefore I don't care about it and don't want to pay for it. See also BBC, aspects of the NHS, pretty much any public service. Lots of people, adults and kids, still use and need libraries.

But Shinobi's point has merit. What this has demonstrated is the fragility of the economy mindset and also the real revelation of who are the essential foundation workers of society to keep it going, and that they generally aren't the people normally benefiting from that economy. But then I guess long before we needed a pandemic to see it, I've been making the case that our economic systems are no longer fit for purpose. They are not built for a world of software automation, information technology, large chunks of the workforce being freelancers, climate change and many other aspects of modern life.

[Neon Ignition]

It feels like we basically have a situation that is going to be in place till the end of the year at the earliest and no-one can get that through their head including the government who are still holding back on effective measures in some sort of vain hope that they can avoid doling out money to people and businesses.

Miserable as it sounds it also feels like most of the question marks people have about the economy aren't really questions but again the reality not setting in yet. We have a system set up on two key principles:

1-Businesses must drive hard on increased profits each year at all costs rather than sustained profit with savings retained
2-Consumers must drive hard to indebt themselves as much as possible to help sustain business growth

It's a system that makes no sense and just about holds together in the best of situations. This current situation has laid waste to it and shown the extent to which our ecomonic model doesn't work. It's taken two minutes for it to collapse. It's not struggling - it's over.

[JazzFunk]

We can't theorise that deeply just yet, I err on the side of negative because it tends to be more realistic and grounded. But sometimes it's proven untrue.

Basically, we've gotta just brace ourselves for damage now, stop being stupid and mingling like hippies, and hope our governors pull their fingers out.

(anyway, on my podium, not meant to be)

I just hope we can get through this as quick as poss and hope you guys get on firmer ground, jobwise, ASAP.

[JazzFunk]

I just don't want it to descend into violence and madness. I don't know who to prepare myself to be. I don't like that, I like being nice, I don't ever want it to come to that, only in New Vegas.

[Dogg Thang]

Yep, Neon Ignition. I saw one weird thing at the end of last week - it was the US airlines looking for a bailout. That's nothing new. Capitalists suddenly become socialists when big business is under threat but two things had me raising an eyebrow (one eyebrow each, so both eyebrows). One was that the US airline industry has handed out an incredibly stupid amount of dividend and bonuses to execs and shareholders. Like, many many billions. So they had money that they could have banked and chose not to. They make loads of money and weren't actually (as I would have thought) on an edge where a small downturn should have sent them into the red.

The other was the value of the bailout they were looking for because it was pretty much the value of the entire industry they were looking to bailout... and so shouldn't that really be a buyout rather than a bailout? Felt like it. Anyway, it was just another example of our global lives where big businessmen will do what they can to stop normal people getting government support and do everything they can to justify it and then come with their hands out the moment their system is demonstrated to be broken, in spite of them having personally hoarded wealth.

It's like a person who hoarded toilet paper over the last couple of weeks being first in line to take a toilet roll handout when some old lady is wiping her ass with nettles.

[JazzFunk]

On edge all the time, thank god I'm on happy tabs to take the edge off! It's not the virus, it's how deep a gash this stuff could put in society.

Always spread love. Even you despise bad, recent 'Imagine' covers.