Many people have been concerned about new COVID variants thanks to the recent issues in Milan. During the rise of the pandemic, several people continued to travel and socialize despite warnings; many worked due to the threat of unemployment and poverty. Quarantine–for those privileged enough to engage–was seen as a punishment, and society paid a penance through the rise of the gig economy. Unfortunately, after the madness of wealth transfer, manufactured inflation, and greedy speculation in the real estate industry, being sick would soon become the only way to rest.
A new dichotomy has been realized: those with sick leave, and those who forfeit income. In the past, those with sick leave continued to work in the vain hopes of socioeconomic progress. For them, the callous demands of the pandemic inspired them not to leave a day before expected with COVID symptoms. Truth: COVID spread because people lacked sick leave. The same controlling individuals who smirked at the “complex flu” destroyed their income base by demanding that nothing change while people died. Forfeiting income often means homelessness, and recovering from that costs more than many think.
Another sad reality is that the gig economy stole sleep from the entire populace. Instead of people having any set work hours with commute, people would rideshare before and after work, do contracts on the weekend, and enhance their side hustle when they remembered. Doing all that takes a toll, and sooner or later, the person will collapse. While recuperating, most of what the person does is sleep, because that is the prime deficit. Imagine being so worn out that one is grateful to get sick because that is the only time one gets to rest.
Finally, recuperation can become depressing because all it means is the opportunity to do it all again. The lies of society have become clear to many, and there is no true value in running ourselves into the ground. Those who condescendingly tell people to just keep working and doing more are those who tend to extract without offering. Thus, even with the coughing, headache, runny nose, fatigue, and delirium, a running nightmare reminds the sick that their “lives” are waiting for them. People who force others to smile through pain have numbed themselves to the reality of an endless, stressful treadmill that offers no relief.
Almost no one will admit it, but this is the city everyone lives in everyday. Commuting in a car or by bus is still the demand that one be controlled by another. Having a “living wage” job or a quilt of gigs is still a desperate existence when people demand more from a finite planet. We are all held hostage by people demanding servitude before distributing hoarded resources, yet there are some who still enable the hoarders. As the clock strikes midnight, consider how many more years people will be able to do this before we all just surrender to the “frailty” of biology. What then will the economic terrorists do?