Many friends of mine, including a significant portion of GNOME contributors, are in the United States, and I’m personally worried they (or those around them) will face particularly deep trouble this year and beyond. It seems nobody dares talk openly about it, so what the heck, I’m sharing my concern here and getting it out of my chest (then, after worrying about death, I can move on to worrying about taxes). Maybe I’ll be able to sleep a bit better.
As you most probably know, Europe is taking a serious beating and is struggling as we speak… but if you thought the US will fare any better, just wait. Shiitake is about to hit the fan, and the case of the United States of America is particularly concerning because of the many reasons I extensively documented here a couple of days ago. Not only is the US’ preparation for this pandemic very much insufficient and it has no true safety net for its citizens, but it also has very unique societal factors that, compared to all the other countries in the world, put it at risk of suffering extremely deep social disruption and pervasive hardship.
I wish you the best of luck in the fight against the SARS-coronavirus-2, just as I am wishing good luck to the rest of the world. I hope I will be incredibly wrong (so far the trends seem to be confirming my predictions, however) and that some unforeseen radical solutions will turn the tide, but I’m not holding my breath here. The US needs more than band-aid quick-fixes.
Let’s hope that this time, the sheer scale of the problem will bring about real positive change in the system. Not just a bigger economic bubble at the expense of the people and planet. It would be about time.