Over the past decade, the lives of humans improved rapidly. We have seen accelerated growth in various aspects of our lives. This is largely due to the fact that we are more connected now than ever before.
The recent virus outbreak taught us that connectivity turns out to be a curse rather than a cure. Countries all over the world are implementing drastic measures amid the unexpected disarray caused by the outbreak.
How can a virus that infects less than 0.1% of the world’s population able to derange the lives of the other 99.9%?
This was the burning question that kept me occupied over the past week.
The short answer is in the title of this post. But if you are as curious as me and unsatisfied by this answer, keep reading.
Scratching the Surface
As countries go into lockdown, the first casualty to get hit is none other than the travel industry. Most of us will directly associate the term “travel” with airlines, airports & hotels. Unfortunately, there are occupations and industries that aren’t getting enough attention. Travel industry includes:
- Pilots&stewardess
- Airport staff
- Tour agencies
- Hotels
- FnB companies for airlines
- Tourist attraction staff
- Land vehicle providers
- Aircraft Engineers
- Jet Fuel Companies
The list goes on beyond what is recorded above. Just imagine the amount of people working in the travel industry.
A Probing Question
At this point, you might be wondering “ So where does all the money go?”
In actual fact, the money didn’t go anywhere because it is sitting idle in our bank accounts.
Let me explain with a simple example.
Imagine a country with a population of one million & each person
earns $2000 on average monthly with the expenditures as follows.
- 25% Accommodation ($500)
- 25% Food ($500)
- 10% Transport ($200)
- 10% Vacation($200)
- 10% Insurance($200)
- 10% Savings($200)
- 5% Entertainment($100)
- 5% Health($100)
If the travel restrictions were to last for a month, each person would have saved an extra $200 for not travelling. Having an extra $200 in your bank account isn’t substantial.
Here is where collective action comes to play.
- $200 x 1 million = $200 million
- $200 million is the combined income of 100,000 people.
- 100,000 people is 10% of the country’s population
So what can we uncover from the simple calculation above?
If 1 million people didn’t spend on travelling for a month, 100,000 people will be affected. What if we scale it up to a few months for a billion people(which is 1000 million)?
According to [link], there are about 100,000 global flights daily, generating billions of dollars every day and a $100 billion in just a month.
Push comes to Shove
During these critical junctures of our lives, we are forced to adapt. Our priorities would have to be reorganized.
Our health & hygiene would be kept on high alert, which means that a shift of demand to healthcare products would be observed in our environment.
The extra money saved would be spent on medical protection as there are restrictions in traveling.
In the next few months, people will learn to be in solitude. We will learn various ways to spend our time at our own homes. Time is a commodity that cannot be refunded. If we learn to allocate it wisely, there are plenty of ways to utilize it for personal growth. Thanks to technology, we can always stay connected with the people we care about.
Humans are highly adaptive to situations that threaten its survival. We have survived various pandemics in the past. No one really knows when the virus would come to a halt, but when it does, there would be plenty of lessons learned.
- The possibility of developing difficult habits.
- Learning the difference between needs & wants
- Appreciating the little gestures of our loved ones
In summary
Ultimately, the virus will drastically reduce the usage of certain resources in the world such as oil/fuel/food.
Overall Unhappiness will increase due to the following reasons.
- People can’t go on vacations
- Airline staff gets laid off
- Tour agencies cannot operate
- Cash is left sitting and not passed around
- When flights cancelled, the airline takes the hit.
- The consumer is impacted because their flights are transferrable but not refunded.
- More $$ will be spent on health products during pandemic due to surge in prices.
Let us brace for the unknown future together as one human race, one day at a time.
Guess we came too close to comfort in 2020.
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