If you’re looking for a silver lining in the coronavirus pandemic, you don’t have to look far. Several bad ideas have become institutionalized in America in recent decades. These bad ideas have served the virus well, made it more deadly, and forced us to shut down our economy.
No more!
If we learn anything from this pandemic, these bad ideas will die:
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Open Offices: Millions of people have seen how moves to open office environments kill productivity and destroy previously good companies. Now, we’re seeing how open offices kill people. Renaming “cubes” to “work spaces” and cramming 100 people into 1,000 square feet of them creates a playground for bacteria and viruses, not to mention the psychological damage inflicted on the dens of iniquity. Open offices must die.
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Re-urbanization: Also known as “Millennials prefer living in big cities,” this idea was a lie to begin with. Millennials, in fact, never wanted to live in big cities. The financial crisis forced them to. But leftist urban planners wanted this myth to drive behavior and the corrupt media helped spread this lie like a virus. But all of the coronavirus hot spots in the world are densely populated urban areas or the nearby suburbs that support them. Five of the top 10 counties at risk of coronavirus catastrophe are New York City and the counties that surround it. The lie of re-ubanization must die.
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Reusable Grocery Bags: Reusable grocery bags introduce deadly viruses and bacteria to your food. We’ve know this forever, but the Environmentalist Nazis barred anyone from saying it out loud. Until now. Massachusetts has banned these Petri dishes, and every state in the union should follow their example. Reusable grocery bags must die.
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Reusable Drink Container: My 20-ounce, insulated coffee tumbler looks the shaving sink in a probational frat house. I’ve adopted the reusable drink container out fear of the Environmentalist Nazis. Starbuck’s and other places banned customers from bringing their own reusable containers into their stores at the start of the outbreak. Let’s make the law in all 50 states. “Sustainable” coffee cups must die.
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Paper Straw Mandates: Paper straws spread disease in a way plastic never could. Don’t use them. And, if you want to really push people over the edge, carry around your own reusable straw. Keep stained and filthy. States will have a choice: plastic straws or the next Bubonic Plague. In January, they’d have chose the plague. Today, they’ll worship the humble plastic straw. Paper straw mandates must die.
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Forecast from Data Models: Data modeling survived the Global Warming hoax and the 2016 election. But it might not survive coronavirus. Dr. Deborah Birx destroyed the myth that four nerds with a laptop can accurately predict the future, even when they have paper from schools with names you’d recognize. The model that predicted 500,000 deaths in the UK was dead wrong. The real estimate is 20,000. (And that’s sort of the worst-case scenario.) I’m not saying data models can’t help inform where things are headed. They absolutely can. But never trust a data model that doesn’t pass sensibility tests. Let the data model god die.
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Concentration of Power (aka, Big Government): Finally, centralized government and concentration of power and authority have exacerbated this problem. The Spanish Flu epidemic was overcome become cities and states were free to experiment with solutions. Central authorities make mistakes, and when they do everybody dies. Local government make mistakes, and when they do the rest of the world learns what not to do. Concentration of power must die.
Every bad experience makes us better in the future, but only if we learn from it and apply the lesson. I beg our leaders in business and government to learn and apply these lessons from coronavirus before it’s too late. Otherwise, we’ll all have suffered in vain.