How do you think life will change in the future?

[rosebb1]

Lots of people saying that life won't be the same again, things will change, won't go back to normal...ever? Please could you explain why you think that?

I must be very naive as I was thinking that once this is over in...6/12 months or whatever it will be, things would return to how they were before this...?

I think there’s going to be some changes to the state school system, I think it’s likely the school week may reduce. Perhaps 3 days a week. After all this parents are going to want more of an input in their child’s education once they’ve realised they’re capable and will or adjusted, children are going to be returning at a higher level with greater personal attention to their studies and the government will be more than happy for an excuse to reduce school funding.
I think there’s going to be a rise in people addicted to technology and related MH issues.
I think the economy will take a hit.
I think more people will see the value of reusable products.
I think there’s going to be an increasing selfishness and lack of concern for others but towards the end of the pandemic it will make a u turn as we’re getting over the worst of it and we, as a society, will be more considerate.

More social disapproval of people who are perceived as not observing basic hygiene - properly washing their hands after the loo, covering mouth & nose when sneezing or coughing, throwing tissues away after one use. I know a couple of people who until recently relied on hand gel & didn't bother to wash their hands in public toilets, even when soap, water & adequate drying facilities were provided. And I'm sure we've all seen the people who just give their fingers a quick rinse. Grim.

I would hope that the emergency services would be recognised as a difficult & potentially dangerous job - all parts of the emergency services. And pay & working conditions improved, but I don't hold out much hope of that if the current government stay in power.

I'm also wondering if the (semi) renationalisation of the railways is going to work, & be taken a step further & they will be properly taken back into public ownership.

And I agree with the PP who mentioned boycotting certain shops & businesses according to how they have acted in this. If their policy is "profit before people" they won't get my money.

I think that companies who have treated their staff like shit through this (Wetherspoons, Sports Direct, Britannia Hotels, Virgin etc) will have their reckoning. I'd also like to think that the phrase 'low skilled worker' will be designated to the scrapheap. The people previously dismissed as such by some politicians and sections of the media are the ones who are currently keeping this country going. Give them all the respect and pay rises they're due.

Also I think that now some people who have had a previously comfortable life are having to live on £94 a week, there'll be more empathy with those who have to do so all the time. Might be cloud cuckoo land to hope that mind you. But I hope so.

We'll all see that the things we thought were essential before actually aren't. Many of us don't need to do the morning commute and can wfh. That takeaway coffee is nice but we can live without it. As a result of all this perhaps pollution and waste will go down.

The NHS will no longer be underfunded and its staff stretched to their limits. We must invest in it so if anything like this were to happen again, we'd be better prepared. I also think there might be a surge in people wanting to work for the NHS.

Personally, I'm going to stop taking every day/thing for granted. I didn't even realise how much I did that before. The things I thought were boring and mundane (hopping on a bus, doing the shopping) weren't. And the things I loved doing (gigs, travel, theatre, cocktails on a Saturday afternoon) were actually beautiful.

Oh and I'll never again think preppers are barmy!

High unemployment
Much higher income tax rates and council tax
Further fall in the value of the pound and higher import costs
Loss of more high street shops
Possibly a reassessment of brexit and the impact on the nhs but if not we can expect futher privatisation and the introduction of some form of private insurance for both health and social care

This thread has filled me with some hope

I think that flexible working and working from home will become more of a thing. I also think that boredom shopping in physical stores will become less appealing. I know the high street has been on its knees for a long while but retail parks are often packed at the weekend with people shopping for fun. Hopefully we will all have a better appreciation for being outdoors.

@quim I take your point about the self employed going into £94 a week and agree to some extent. But my DH works very hard in his self employed capacity and has actually survived on much less when he was poorly and unable to work so does appreciate what he has and acknowledges that others are less fortunate. We both volunteer with homeless and contribute to food banks and have always wanted to do right by others. I do hope the government extend provisions for self employed or anyone who was on a zero hour contract and has been let go.

I can’t begin to predict what that will be but my nearly 3-year-old already thinks staying safe requires being at home, and is scared even to go in the garden

Why on earth does your young child feel this way?! The main factor in how kids deal with this is how their parents deal with it.

After all this parents are going to want more of an input in their child’s education once they’ve realised they’re capable and will or adjusted, children are going to be returning at a higher level

Are you joking?!

Maybe, just maybe, social care work will begin to be valued as it should be. (Though already I'm seeing a lot of thanks and praise, priority shopping and money off for the NHS, of course rightly so, and naff all for social care-and it feels like a kick in the teeth for us).

I see someone has already said they're going to see us preppers in a different light.

So yes people won't see us preppers with all essentials already in place as loonies.

After all this parents are going to want more of an input in their child’s education once they’ve realised they’re capable and will or adjusted, children are going to be returning at a higher level with greater personal attention to their studies

Have you opened any other thread on MN in the last two days?! I do not think the nation is falling in love with home-schooling

The above seem like pretty mild outcomes.

Given the sabre-rattling both the USA and China, with Iran and Russia seeming to side with China in alleging that USA operatives "planted" the virus in Wuhan, I'd say war is quite possible after this. Or even during it, depending on which side gets a vaccine mass produced first.

But I've no doubt that will be seen as "scaremongering", as was any suggestion that the epidemic would become a pandemic, that the UK would be hit hard or that we would end up in a strict lockdown.

I don’t think more will prep or really see it differently after this. People will relish in just in time ability and go nuts.

The only thing that would change things are higher prices. Eg for flights.

Pics if US planted it it has backfired hugely. Talk on R4 right now re US being potential epicentre of virus.

Preppers will still be seen as "loonies", even as people literally take on the lifestyle of preppers themselves. Those who put away 2 weeks of supplies which they absolutely needed for 14 days self isolation will still be castigated as "stockpilers". People with children will still be singled out for either stockpiling and taking the kids to rhe supermarket - even though one or the other is required other wise the kids don't eat. Mothers will remain damned do, damned don't.

People will remain jerks with little insight.

@elbas why is your three year old scared to go in the garden?!

MarshaBradyo I find the notion that the West planted the virus to be lunacy. It's the fact that China and allies are repeatedly stating this as fact that is highly concerning.

@youcantellthem obviously not everyone on £94pw now is the same. It's the ones who looked down on those claiming benefits and claimed they lived a life of luxury with flat screen TVs and top of the range mobiles. Hopefully now they'll see that on £94pw that just isn't possible and was always a cruel myth.

I agree with you re zero hour contracts, too.

@ElbasAbsentPenis my children are 2 and 3 and have no idea what's going on. I told the 3 year old that school was having a holiday. We don't go out much other than to the park and shopping anyway so luckily my children have no expectations!

“Also I think that now some people who have had a previously comfortable life are having to live on £94 a week, there'll be more empathy with those who have to do so all the time. Might be cloud cuckoo land to hope that mind you. But I hope so.“

I think we may go back to a contributions based benefit system. Polly Toynbee wrote an article in the Guardian yesterday saying as more middle class people lose their jobs and end end up on UC they’ll start agitating for a more generous benefits system for all. I disagree, I think people who have contributed all their lives will start agitating for a contributions based system here, just like they have in social democracies like Sweden and Germany.

For some reason the British Labour Party is ideologically against a contributions based system. However as we have a Conservative government in charge, it may be a possibility. Who would have thought it, a Tory party implementing socialist actions

I think people will think more carefully before having children. I said this on another thread but you never know what life is going to throw at you, but whatever it does throw at you is MILES easier to deal with without the responsibility of children.

Ah yes but people have barely started, I think that’ll change once, as I said, they’ve adjusted. I also think it’s going to be part of a list of changes whilst we recover,if I’m correct in saying Coronavirus will be costly, the economy crashes and greater levels of unemployment.

Who would have thought it, a Tory party implementing socialist actions

At times like these, socialism comes to the fore. Your money's no use when it can't buy treatment, PPE or even toilet roll. One of the rays of hope in all this is seeing all the various community groups coming together to help others and the acts of kindness by people, regardless of their income - whether it's buying a extra tin of beans for a neighbour or letting the NHS use their hotels for free.

That's something I'd love to see continuing.

Oh, and UBI. It's definitely time for that now.

@QuimJongUn

I was surprised by a lot of the measures that were announced on Friday. Seems that a Tory party is going some way to bailing out the people. Unlike Labour, in 2008, who bailed out large corporations.

Funny how the world can turn on its head in a few weeks.

Please don’t think I’m giving my son a conplex - he was in nursery 4 days a week until last Monday, and they went on and on at kids about the importance of ‘staying home and being safe’. Any children who were self isolating were ‘staying home and being safe’. They meant well. But it’s not great for a literal-minded kid!