Like it or not, the COVID19 pandemic has sped up the change that is already taking place in the world. If you continue to believe the world will be the same post COVID19, you're in for a rude awakening. The world we knew and the world that lies ahead will be completely different. Either you can prepare for it or you can get swept under by its current. There is no stopping it, only getting ahead of it and riding the wave.
If you're one of the fortunate few, and you properly prepare for an alternate reality ahead, you can easily ride the momentum of change and come out massively ahead. For many though, this won't be the case. Most will continue to respond as if nothing is changing and wonder why their standard of living has degraded to a point of desperation.
The Current State of Affairs
It's impossible to prepare for the future unless we connect the dots on what's been happening in the past and how it's affecting what lies ahead. Now, it's impossible to foresee everything that will happen in the future. If that were the case, we'd all be trillionaires. But sometimes the writing on the wall is so apparent for those that have been watching, that we can expect it to come to pass with a high degree of certainty.
Let's take some time to analyze and dissect some changes that are taking place. Then we can discuss ways in which we can adequately prepare ourselves to not only survive but thrive economically during the post COVID19 era.
Globalization
Our world has increasingly become more interconnected caused mostly by the advent and wide proliferation of the internet, spurring hyper globalization. Over half of the world population now has internet access and soon, the entire world will be living online.
Not only have digital walls been broken down, but with the continued improvement of global logistics and the growing travel sector, we're no longer siloed to individual countries. We've grown from small tribes to a globally symbiotic nervous system where one thing happening in one country affects the rest of the world.
On the exterior, it might seem like COVID would slow the progress of globalization, but in reality, the world figured out how much we're already connected by the spread of the virus. There is no more pretending that we live on isolated islands.
I imagine that in the future we'll see more coordinated efforts to work on global agendas rather than singular national efforts. We see that with efforts on vaccines and environmental concerns.
Money Printing
Another important area that COVID has impacted is the U.S. money supply. In an instant, the government "printed" 2.2 TRILLION dollars to provide aid for American citizens in form of bailouts, grants, and loans.
The thought behind it is that we'd lose more money if the government didn't bail out the nation; so it was the right thing to do. I'm not arguing the correctness of the decision. It's just stating a fact that we're accustomed to printing money. It has now become the norm not the exception.
Currently, our total national debt is in excess of $27.4 Trillion dollars (https://www.usdebtclock.org/). At this point, we've gone beyond the thought of EVER paying back the total debt amount.
It's similar to when you've racked up so much credit card debt, revolving debt, and all sorts of undisclosed debt obligations that you just know it's impossible to pay back. So instead of being thrifty and savvy with your money, you throw away discretion and rack up even more debt, because at this point WHO CARES. You can just file for bankruptcy.
Now take yourself out of the story and reinsert the United States. Who is going to force us into bankruptcy? No one. So the thought is, let's continue to print our way out of trouble. The sad reality is, there are consequences. There will be a tipping point. Even if we aren't forced into an untenable position by our debt obligations, we're already seeing the cracks in our economic system — ridiculous housing prices, inflation, unhinged stock valuations, and so on.
Technology Boom
If technology wasn't already booming at a blinding pace, COVID pushed it into overdrive. If you look at grocery stores, there are now more cashier-less systems in place than there are people working there. Fast food restaurants are forgoing cashiers and introducing more automated ordering kiosks. Big box retailers are shuttering their doors after a losing battle against technology giants like Amazon.
We live in a world where it is plausible to never leave your house and actually be okay (or so we think). We can get practically anything we need to be delivered to us. We're inundated with entertainment options from Netflix to Call of Duty. We can fulfill our social communication needs through video calls. We can perform most of our job duties from a laptop. The era in which we live could quite literally be categorized as the technology era.
With a raging pandemic striking, business owners, especially brick and mortar businesses, are seeing how susceptible they are to externalities that can quite literally bankrupt their business. There is no doubt that many companies will no longer look the same as they were before if they survive liquidation.
More companies that can go online will do so. That doesn't mean the brick and mortar businesses will cease to exist. Humans are naturally physical beings and we like social interaction. But the business landscape will change. We don't know quite how drastically it will change, but we do know more technology, in the form of machines and software, will continue to eat up the world.
Jobs that can be outsourced, will be. Jobs that can be automated, will be. Jobs that can be improved by technology and the removal of humans, will be.
How to Prepare
Creativity
Technology
Hard Assets
Holding cash is like holding a bucket with holes in it trying to store your water.
Business
Multiple Streams of income
Learning How to Learn
Businesses that can't be outsourced