What is going to change in America now that we have COVID19?

Nah. It’ll all blow over.

Nope,that’s freaking damn near communism and I aint paying some free loaders health care.
Nope that hurts a free market.
Yes you should but you wont.
Yes you should but that is Government interference, and you can’t have that .
Maybe,as long as their employer can monitor them every second of the work day.
I doubt it most people use the public school system as a babysitter service anyways.
Will anything change I highly doubt it most people are very short sighted .

It’s hard to say but unlike the first two responses I don’t think this will blow over and life will go back to exactly how it was before. This is far from over and we haven’t even seen the worst yet.

Well one thing I will agree with you @Jonsblond this is far from over.

The one thing I see making a drastic change will be: “NO MORE BOOTY CALLS.” There will also be more attempts to control the people. I did say attempts. Those with any fire in their furnace will rebel. I’m all in favor of homeschooling, at least then the kids are being paid attention to.

Nothing will change for the better. Not at first.

- It will provide a rationale for selfish hoarding.
– It will give authoritarians a taste for control and the tools to inflict it.
– It will push the working class into poverty, the poor into destitution, and the destitute into early death.
– It will eliminate the last vestiges of the mom-and-pop small business, leaving a wasteland of corporate modern-day mining-town company stores.
– It will cause privileged suburban liberals to swing to the right, as emergencies always do.

But the Great Depression brought about the New Deal in the end, not because the cold, empty hearts of the billionaires and their pet politicians were suddenly overflowing with generosity, but because the alternative was the kind of nothing-left-to-lose desperation which ignited the Russian revolution and put the potentates, priests, and landlords against a wall. It will happen again, but not until enough angry people have fought enough pitched battles in the street for food and basic survival that even the robber baron Archons can’t ignore it or suppress it.

I was listening to NPR yesterday and they (I don’t know who “they” were because I missed the beginning) were saying that this is going to change us the way living through a world war changed people, and the way life after 9/11 changed forever. We now think of things as “pre-9/11” or “post-9/11.” Thinking about things like air travel or obtaining an ID, it’s pre-9/11 or post-9/11.

A lot of small businesses won’t survive this, which is sad. A great local, independent movie theater in my area is not going to survive. That’s just the beginning.

Unfortunately, a lot of the money for small businesses from the Federal government is ending up going instead to companies like Ruth Chris’ Steak House, and not the little mom-and pop stores and restaurants it was intended for.

On a work conference call yesterday, where we would normally be planning large scale events as one of the things my organization does, planning an annual picnic and holiday party (yes the holiday party planning takes all year as it’s an event for over 500 people), now all that is off the table. No annual picnic at the amusement park, no big fancy holiday party at the hotel, no site visits or member meetings.

Almost nothing will change.
Your death toll just doubled within a week, while your president tweets to “liberate” states on lockdown, accompanied by efforts to protect companies from legal liability when their workers get sick with Covid at work.
Your leadership has neither the sense, nor the fortitude to see through or initiate the necessary measures, even while the crisis is in full force.

It depends on if it comes roaring back when we reopen or not. If not will there be a second wave in the Fall? If either of those two scenarios play out then things will change. If they don’t then things will pretty well go back to normal for the most part.

What I would think changes in the next few years if Covid stays with us or gets worse:

Supply chains will restructure and you will buy almost everything online.

Brick and mortar stores are going to dwindle away.
Service industries that can’t adapt will be erased.

Stadiums and theme parks will close as will music festivals and museums.

Delivery services will be a big thing and will be a new business opportunity.

“Meal kits” will be a hit

Vehicle costs and values are going to drop like a rock.

People are going to want more personal living space and the trend to smaller dwellings is going to reverse. Small condos and apartments are going to be cheap with the opposite true for larger homes.

Divorce rates will probably double.

Work from home is going to be a new normal for most “hands free” jobs but your employer will pry into your personal life more. Work/home lines will blur. “Hands on” jobs like electricians, warehouse and factory workers will see a salary bump and increased job stability. The reverse will be true for remote workers.

There will be a massive recession/depression while the world restructures

There will have to be Gov’t intervention to fix most of this, UBI is going to be on the table for those who have been economically displaced. This will be mandatory to keep society from falling apart.

There won’t be much going back once this is in place. It’ll more important than ever to protest the things we are not ok with that will be long-term

If there is any autocracy lingering in the shadows around the world it will come out.

We will have cleaner air, CO2 emissions will see a dramatic decrease.

“Virtual” tech is going to explode to such a degree that science fiction writers would even be surprised.

Telecom companies are going to try to start gouging.

Tourism industries will fundamentally change and in unexpected ways.

China is going to start being a problem.

I was talking to a friend the other day, who is working from home and often gets the opportunity to work from home other times, when there’s a snow day or the kids are sick and stuff like that. We were saying that more people will have a dedicated “office” at home, which will be a spare bedroom, or when they purchase a house, they’ll have a room just for the office or add a room on, just for phone, camera, printer, files, etc.

Employer saves too, as there will be less overhead with less heat, power, office space, office furniture, cleaning, etc.

I don’t think we changed all that much after 911, and I don’t expect much to change after this.
There may be some who have been on the fence about home schooling who will now decide in favor of it, but it won’t become a movement. Why not? Because a lot of people are voicing frustration and frazzled nerves over being home all day with their kids. Also, there are lots of parents who don’t have a stay home option. They have to send their kids somewhere while they work.
I think the biggest takeaway will be the occupational choices made for a generation or two.
Doctors may have hazard insurance to pay, as they do with malpractice, so they can be paid a premium during such events. The difference being, the payments would be made by their patients. I guess that is no difference after all. Malpractice is written right into the bill.

One more thing occurs to me. People will be less likely to stare at mask wearing people. I expect there will be new ways of making masks part of one’s style. I want one that has four straps to hold it in place, and it looks like a spider, or an octopus.

@Patty_Melt: One significant way that I can think of that we changed after 9/11 is that the documents we use now and the means we use to obtain those documents is a lot different than it was pre-9/11. Before 9/11, I could drive and did used to drive to Canada with just my drivers’ license. Now, you need a passport or maybe you can do it with the new enhanced driver’s license which didn’t used to exist prior to 9/11. Now there’s the enhanced driver’s license which is almost like a passport and the procedure you use to obtain it is not like the procedure to get a regular driver’s license.

Pre-9/11, was the Department of Homeland Security in existence? I am not sure but I think maybe not.

Pre 9/11, I don’t believe NYPD had a Terrorism Unit (not sure what it’s called exactly). I am sure other departments around the country have terrorism units as well.

Pre 9/11, our local fire departments were little buildings. Post 9/11, lots of money came from the Federal government to get new facilities and new equipment for local fire departments. Now some of our local fire departments are big buildings, even though they’re in sparsely populated rural areas.

Those are a few ways I can think of that are significant changes since 9/11.

Hopefully, not much.
I still think Americans have a way of knowing what to do without having power crazed politicians and self-impressed intellectuals telling them what to do.

I suppose l could be wrong-but I won’t bet that I am wrong.

A lot will depend on who wins the next election.

josie I agree with you. I know not to stick my hand in the fire, I know the donut is gonna be sweet. I don’t need some jerk in a $1000 suit telling me how to survive or how to live, think or feel.

We might discover that we are no longer considered a world leader and that we’ve lost a lot of the respect that we’ve spent over 100 years building. Other countries no longer consider our opinions valuable as there may well be a New World Order so we’ll have to learn different languages as English might not be the world’s 2nd language

^^^^