For What It's Worth

“Something’s happenin’ here, what it is, ain’t exactly clear.”

That’s of course a line from “For What It’s Worth,” the iconic song performed decades ago by a band called Buffalo Springfield. You know, Neil Young, Stephen Stills, a couple of others.

Certainly, something is indeed goin’ down. Certainly, what it is, ain’t exactly clear.

As I wonder about that something, here are a few of the questions that I find interesting to ponder.

1 – It’s looking like hundreds of thousands of people, some perhaps without health insurance, could be about to rack up some medical debt. What, if any, impact will this crisis have on the debate for medical coverage for all?

2 – We know that medical care, for-profit or otherwise, is getting much more difficult for people who live in rural areas. What impact might this crisis have on that sad fact?

3 – What impact might it have on the hundreds of thousands of small businesses that are in jeopardy because their customers are locked down?

4 – What impact might it have on the millions of individuals who work on contract or in the gig economy? What will happen to bartenders, wait staff, musicians, and others who work in restaurants?

5 – What about those of us who are getting used to buying groceries on-line? Will any of us want to return to fighting our way through our local grocery stores when we can shop for our stuff on the Web and have it delivered to our homes?

6 – As a part of question number 5, with companies large and small hustling to build infrastructure to support home deliveries, when this mess is all over and done, will anyone want to shop person-to-person again, except when absolutely necessary? Will the result be an all-new level of the gig economy that we could never have seen coming?

7 – What will the level of unemployment be when we emerge from this mess? Will those laid off during this crisis be quickly rehired?

8 – Will the markets bounce back to their previous stratospheric highs?

9 – With nobody working and paying into their Social Security accounts, how soon, if a lockdown continues, will the Social Security Administration run out of money to send retirees every month?

10 – With people worldwide locked down, traffic is almost nonexistent, so air pollution is almost nonexistent. Are scientists in their labs measuring the differences between today’s air quality and air qualities worldwide a month, or two, or six, ago? Will anyone want to go back to what we had?

11 – As we all cut back on our driving, will our reliance on petroleum, the automobile industry, and the subservient industries, be so greatly diminished that many of them go bankrupt?

12- Is massive and lasting disruption happening right under our noses? Is it so big that we scarcely notice it? Or will things snap back to normal?

13 – Finally, do the American people want government that looks after business first? Or do we want government that looks after people first? Or is there middle ground that would allow both sets of values to be equitably served?

I doubt that any of us will be able to guess the answers to these questions. But it is indeed time for us to, “stop, people, what’s that sound, everybody look what’s goin’ down.”

It might be time to ask, “what it’s worth,” pertaining to our daily lives and the ways in which we conduct them; then find some answers that will help us all survive in whatever new reality awaits us.

-JFT