Printing Money

One thing the pandemic proved wrong has been the lockdowns would lead to a collapse of the global economy. Many are scratching their heads trying to figure out what is going on and why both stock markets and consumer confidence are high. Is it just a temporary effect of governments printing money? Or is it more permanent? And if permanent, why have we realized so late? Or perhaps this is only possible now?

Time will tell if we are still facing a crisis or not, but one thing the pandemic has proven right is we are extremely efficient. We have the Internet which keeps us connected even when we cannot meet. We have automated and semi-automated manufacturing lines spinning all sorts of magic. We have automated harvesters taking care of crops. Energy is becoming more and more abundant and should be completely free within the next 20-30 years, especially when nuclear fusion is mastered at a commercial scale.

The development of the COVID vaccine itself is a huge feat. As first groups are getting their shots, it is less than a year now since the virus was first discovered. Of course we have had the RNA platforms ready, but the way the civilization has coped with the virus is unprecedented. And it owes everything to the information technology: computers, software and communications. This is probably the greatest human achievement since landing on the Moon.

The pandemic has also shown we are ready now to reduce the working week to 2-3 days. Of course whoever wants can still continue working as a hobby for a 5-day week, but generally this would not be needed.

Of course there is still the huge distribution problem, as despite oversupply of everything, including food, thousands and even millions are dying of starvation. This distribution is mainly a political problem, hence more difficult to solve than any economic and / or technology problem.

I am extremely curious how this all will play out on a global scale. But it all seems like there is no harm whatsoever of putting the global economy on neutral, as it keeps coasting not losing the speed at all...