Would you be happy to lock down for the next two years?

[BirdieFriendReturns]

If the government restrictions stayed in place?

So until May 2022.

I agree it's first world problems

And your comparison between 'introverts' and 'extroverts' is a vacuous one. I'm very much an introvert, but even putting aside the rather important questions of what would happen to the economy and society after 2 years lockdown, I can't imagine two years of sitting at home. Even introverts like some social interaction, as well as things like cinemas, travel, gyms, restaurants etc.

Which is why I said a more balanced mix is preferable. At the moment it's too balanced for the introvert and usually it's too extrovert.

@Jeffersona. I’m struggling to work out if you’re really as dumb as you come across. No one is forcing you to leave your house. Not last year, not this year, not next year.

There is no balance needed between extrovert and introvert. We are all free to live our life as we please as long as we don’t need anyone else to fund it.

You don’t need an economy-wrecking, civil unrest-causing lockdown to make you stay firmly ensconced in whatever dull life you choose.

@Jeffersona what are you on about? You can do whatever you like, the world doesn't need to grind to a halt for you to find your own balance.

@Bartlet

I'm not talking about the more trivial nature of stay at home dog mum.

I'm an introvert but still like to socialise in small doses. What I struggle with is being hemmed into a dense open-plan office for 40 hours a week, ordinarily. If we all had to go back to work tomorrow as normal then a lot more people would feel as claustrophobic and uncomfortable as I usually do.

No.

So get a different job then. Crashing the economy so you don’t have to go back to work is the epitome of selfishness.

This is the perfect example of the ulterior motives of the “stay locked in” contingent. They’re enjoying their locked in life so screw everyone else.

@Bartlet that's a strawman as I have continued to productively work 40 hours a week from home and much prefer it. My manager expects a mix of WFH and from the office going forward which is fine. Point is, a lot of us don't want to go back to the old ways.

Guess you'll need to get another job then, Jeff, because there are plenty of people who would be more than happy to take your place.

No it’s not a straw man. That’s a matter between you and your boss with regard to your particular WFH arrangements. You genuinely think everyone else should stay at home to give you a smokescreen to not go back to work?

I have honestly never engaged with anyone as openly singlemindedly selfish as you. Most of your cohort at least pretend that they’re doing it so as not to kill their granny.

No way. Had enough already .

If you can WFH for part of the week and get your work done and your boss is happy then it's not an issue is it? It's a point of more flexible working so you're not at squashed public transport every day (whether you WFH or not) and less cars on the road, less claustrophobic office environment.

I'm talking about where work can be done from home.

The idea is horrifying.

FUCK NO!

I think if they can't get a vaccine in the next year or so, then they need to just let us get back to normal and accept it will always be around like the common cold or flu.

I am not staying in this world if this is how my life will be spent for the next 70 years!

Yes I would.

No

@jeffersona. Your point about home working is entirely reasonable. No one (apart from your boss it seems) would dispute that.

Why do you want to enforce economic catastrophe on millions so you can get to wfh in your current job? That is so fucking selfish and psychopathic that I’m not even sure where to start.

I'm not doing another two weeks of this shit let alone two fucking years.

@Bartlet I don't want to. The point I was making was I hope when this is over that more flexible working carries on where feasible.

Of course I don't want this situation to continue. It's going to be an economic disaster, each death is tragic and I do miss seeing my friends.

The OP was a fairly simple proposition that said nothing about disintegrating economies or thinking about the situation as it pertains to others.

Would I be happy to stay in Lockdown for two more years? Absolutely, as it suits me to the ground.

Is it realistic to extend Lockdown for two more years? Obviously not, but that's not what the OP asked, so those getting their knickers in a twist seem to be missing that point.

No. And horrible for my older teens - what life for them?
And for all you who would love it: who is paying? Who is sacrificing their "time with family" and "risking their lives" so lockdown ladies can bake and sew and cook? Who is working their arses off and paying tax picking fruit and milking cows and doing dull jobs in sewage plants and electricity plants so lockdown ladies can "keep my family safe"?

There would quite rightly be riots!!!

civil unrest-causing lockdown
I've been wondering since day one why there hasn't been any unrest at all, apart from sneaky breaking of lockdown roolz. Public anger is well overdue. Perhaps the red mist will descend some time after the lockdown is over, when people are licking their financial wounds, students are realising they have to pay full tuition fees for a degree which is even less likely to help them find a job, young people are realising that they have no future, civil liberties have not been restored, and people are dying not from covid, but from the consequences of recession and lockdown.

You didn't see civil unrest over Brexit, didn't see it over the scandal of the banking crisis in 2008, didn't see it over our involvement in illegal wars, and it took years of build-up and nonsense for people to finally lose their temper over Poll Tax.

Folk in the UK aren't going to start rioting in the streets after having been subjected to a half-hearted, barely enforce lockdown for 6 weeks. Far too genteel and ambivalent. Give it another 6 months of a progressively more punitive and restrictive lockdown, THEN you'd have an incendiary situation.

@XDownwiththissortofthingX. Well some people when they’re considering the question about whether they’d be happy consider something more than their own selfish needs.

Lockdown does quite suit me and my partner. We’re enjoying it - both still in employment and loving the homebody pace of life. My kids considerably less so. The general needs of the country - absolutely not. See I’m not a selfish self obsessed asshole so other factors outside my own particular situation play into my happiness.

Right now the bad effects would be increased DV, drinking and so on. But yes it’s when services and supply would break down that you’d see unrest.