THE POST PANDEMIC REALITY

This 77-year-old woman is described as being unreasonable and angry for not wearing a mask in CostCo. The employee is a relentless young bully, hiding behind condescending private-property authority. This is not a sign of a health society. 

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If you are part of the 80% of Americans who are not wealthy, like me, you will be feeling some of the side effects of the Pandemic Panic (PP), inflicted on the country by politicians, epidemiologists and media. Here are two examples from my own recent post-PP experience:

The side of my building in my condo complex leaked heavily into my unit through a badly constructed design feature over a window twice this year. The second occurrence was particularly bad. When a reputable contractor came to assess, he explained that his work orders were backed up for two years due to PP demand, stimulated in part by people spending so much time at home. 

Unfortunately for us consumers, this spike in demand has coincided with Chinese tariffs and supply chain failures. The result is inflated prices and delays due to scarcity of materials. In other words, worse service for more money. 

The second example is about appliances. My water supply was cut off recently due to nearby construction. Air trapped in my pipes when it was turned back on messed up my sophisticated washing machine in a couple of nasty ways. It stopped working well and leaked. 

My trips to big-box stores in search of a replacement after looking at models and prices on line were a shocker. The delivery capabilities of the companies as posted on line were absolute lies. Models of interest showed delivery capability of 3-7 business days for one national chain. When I went to a local store of that same chain, a nervous clerk informed me that no washing machines of any kind would be available until October, at the earliest. 

Again, laundry luxury sales have boomed because people are housebound by PP. Korean models had absolutely no guaranteed delivery dates at all.  I would have been expected to lay out over $1,000 for an adequate washer-dryer pair now to get them in October, three months from now. 

I have never diagnosed a washing machine in my 70 years until now. I rushed home, watched a few Y'Tubes, opened up my coughing appliance. Voila! It is running fine and not leaking. Who knew? I am a washing machine mechanic.

I now know why wealthy stockholders can feel smug behind their designer masks. PP has been great for the stock market because housebound fools are spending money they don't have like crazy on things they don't really need. The banks will scoop up the interest on credit for years to come. Attorneys will never be out of work with the number of bankruptcies, foreclosures and evictions. Massive corporate landlords will have plenty of working renters who have lost their houses. 

Those who own stock in research and pharmaceuticals are the obvious beneficiaries. But think of every company that will benefit from having a PP excuse for inflating its prices. If you buy and cook your own food, you have seen your grocery bills skyrocketing. The quality of the food-shopping experience is the worst in my lifetime, and the prices are escalating. 

Was Pandemic Panic an engineered "virus" of the psychological kind? It is hard to look at the media's enthusiastic reportage of fear-mongering and the CDC's rock star physicians sermonizing without questioning whether there are those evil enough to shamelessly promote mass panic to profit from it. 

The great majority have been subjected to lockdowns, race riots, public pillaging, unemployment and mask-shaming. And now, for some time to come, their quality of life will be significantly diminished. Should anyone be profiting from any of this? No. Are there people who are? Yes.