The COVID-19 virus is exacerbating two fundamental structural problems in America and the world.
First, we are facing an increasingly alarming inequality of income between the upper and lower levels of society. The Middle Class has been in the process of being hollowed out for decades now, and is getting worse. This is being shown in tragic relief by the viral pandemic we are all going though. We have known for a few years now that 40% of Americans don't have $400 for an emergency without having to borrow it or sell something. Well, we are in that emergency now for many of them.
Andrew Yang, failed candidate for the Democratic nomination for president, highlighted a major contributing factor to this dangerous inequality spread - the relentless progression of technology that is eliminating jobs, and could end up eliminating the very idea of jobs and careers themselves. Artificial Intelligence is exploding exponentially and could eliminate everything from truck drivers to doctors in a time frame much shorter than we can imagine. If so, how do we survive? What new paradigm is needed for humanity to continue in relative harmony?
The problem is that when the poverty becomes too widespread, very painful things can happen. When the economic inequality became too extreme in France, the French Revolution of 1789 ended up with the French aristocracy having their heads chopped off by the guillotine. And when the economic inequality in Russia became too extreme in 1917 the Russian Revolution ended up with the Tsar and his family being shot. I don't expect bloody revolution in America, but some big changes can happen here and around the world if we are unable to flatten the curve of the spread of the virus and are not able to give needed financial and health aid to all Americans.
The second major structural problem we face is the inability to effectively respond to the ever more alarming climate change being caused by our economies. California and Australia are seeing terrible fire storm seasons. The rest of the country is seeing floods, blizzards, hurricanes etc. that are far outside of normal. And time is only making these things worse. I have real hopes that the smartest young scientists and engineers are working on coming up with new technologies of producing energy and transportation that are environmentally friendly, but political forces are entrenched and destructive.
These are structural issues and I don't have an answer, but answers are coming, and my hope and vision is that those answers are not violent. A dear friend has suggested that the future will have the emergence of those qualities that only humans can contribute - creativity. I would add to that - the human touch and compassion. This is where my hopes and dreams go for now.
