Will America ever be back to normal after Covid?

[exitseven]

I went back to the gym for the first time since I had my surgery. I got there after 9:00 S thinking the morning crowd would have left already. The parking lot was jammed and the gym was really crowded. I wanted to aske people why they were not at work. Maybe the "work from home" has taken root. I still drive through the town and there are still empty storefronts where there once were thriving businesses. I really cannot think of anything positive to come out of it.

[Investigator]

Short answer, no.

Long answer, Covid fundamentally damaged the psyche of the human race generally and Gen Z and Gen Alpha specifically. Whether we're talking about governments responding with a lax hand or with an iron grip, the effects of the virus, the lock downs for months on end and how nations responded to them, is akin to a mass casualty event―on par with a continent-wide natural disaster. The glass dividers and masks are gone, but the mental health problems still linger. Realistically, they will never go away. All of the assumptions about how "evil and malevolent government would be, if something like that happened", all the jokes about people acting like "unthinking zombies, who merely fall in line" have come to pass. The conspiracies are true and you can't unlearn that. You can either accept it or live in denial.

Asking if America can mentally reset to "before Covid" is like asking if a family can mentally reset to "before a home invasion". That destruction of trust in your fellow man is akin to surviving a Holocaust, breeding paranoia that only lessens. It never dissipates. There is only readjustment; there is no rewind.

[MrChinaski]

Meh. My kids seem to have come through just fine.

[Mike_Hum]

Nope. The covid lies permanently broke society. The only thing positive to come from Covid is that I got a remote position. I thoroughly enjoy not commuting into an office.

[exitseven]

@Mike_Hum My kids all "work" from home. They are always going to the gym, or working on their house or running errands. My youngest "works" from our vacation home during the summer. He kayaks a lot.

[Mike_Hum]

ok, and people in an office bullshit with their cubicle mates, spend 45 minutes in the break room getting coffee.

The term "cyber Monday" literally came about from office workers doing online shopping while in the office.

[MrChinaski]

They weren't lies, in general. There was a lot of incompetence.

[Mike_Hum]

@MrChinaski What are you even talking about

[RandomGirl42]

I'm not sure how to answer this since it was like I lived in 2 different worlds during Covid. My little rural area that time forgot and ignored it all to begin with and literally very little changed.

And then I was attempting college in the "big city" and it was like a post war zone or something.

So, I don't know if I ever knew what normal was to begin with.

[XXblack88]

I hope it will but I still think there's a ways to go before we get back to pre covid. It might take years

[XXblack88]

thanks for mho

[Chazmatazz269]

If you had invested in any of the ride share and delivery companies that boomed because of the lockdowns and never slowed down, you might be singing a different tune. There are also many companies that specialize in air purification systems, filter masks, hand soaps and sanitizers that benefited to the tune of billions. The postings required for stores and restaurants that wanted to open had to cause a boom in commercial printing and signage too. Let’s not even talk about the billions Big Pharma made away with.
Covid was a money maker. Fear mongering usually is.
We’re never going to be “back to normal” because capitalism has reached “too big to fail” levels. Nobody wants to reverse policies and practices that are making them or their friends money. Even if it’s costing honest people money, the “haves” always come out on top when the “have nots” protest.

[exitseven]

yes, several local schools got sucked in to these scams and blew through millions in federal funding for basically a fairy tale.

[AviatorTom]

What defines normal? Even without COVID, things change. New technology. Different politics and leaders. Each of us gets older.

[exitseven]

our education system has definitely changed. Thee is a big shift to remote learning. Remote learning cannot compare with live instruction especially in the K-12 world. Even when students return to the classroom the curriculum has been dumbed down to try and compensate for the two years of school that we lost. At the college level there are more options for remote learning. It is more convenient for both the student and the professor. The college itself does not have to maintain the infrastructure it needed when the students actually had to show up in person.
I "taught" a remote course last year. The course was already created by the textbook publisher. The publisher had a software interface that gave exams and assignments, kept track of the grades and even had a way to interface with the system the college uses to input student final grades. The only think I had to do was keep track of the students and if somebody looked like they were falling behind I just sent them and e-mail to get them back on track. The students had exams to take and they could take them over again if they did not get an "A". As a result, everyone got an A.
I got paid the same amount of money as it i taught a live course.

[sage2021]

COVID is still around.

[exitseven]

/yes but nobody is making any money off it.

[MrChinaski]

Yes, but it's not what it used to be. It's killing about as many people as the flu these days. Everything lets you down...

[Kaneki05]

I see working at home as a great thing so... and in US it's even better saves on gas and you've got 24hr places granted I do think it became less after covid so that sucks 24hr is so great as someone from England without such convenience. Still more places than us open though.

[888theGreat]

Won't come back with Trump. Manufacturing jobs are leaving more with Trump than Biden. More empty store fronts coming. Less jobs. Gyms closing. Higher prices at pump and food too.

[exitseven]

2026 will be better tht 2025. Tax cuts, mass deportations , new factories and low inflation on top of an already strong economy. The economy was a mess when Trump took office and it has taken a year to get it back on track.

[888theGreat]

Been worse so far

[exitseven]

No it hasn't. Inflation has been a steady 2.5% from 9.9% . The trade deficit has decreased, gas prices are down, employment has been uneven but partly due to democrat government shutdowns and layoffs of 260 thousand government employees. new businesses are opening and construction jobs are surging because of new factories being built. When these factories come online they will provide good jobs for thousands of people.

[WilliamStorm456]

Define normal bro.

I doubt we'll get back to Good Times

And if u mean Christian, hell no.

If u mean a functional defined secular normal, probably, but it won't last.

[Jeff51]

We have different forms of covid now. The 24 fitness near home never went back to 24hrs after covid.

[oldman26]

It is doubtful

[exitseven]

I refuse to accept this as "THe New Normal". Screw that.
.