The World is Gripped with Coronavirus Panic
COVID-19, aka Coronavirus, aka Wuhan Flu, aka Chinese Bat Flu, aka Kung Flu, has taken the world by storm.
Countries are in a panic trying to contain the virus’s outbreak, now considered a pandemic.
The main thing is that we as individuals remain calm. When the body goes into fear/panic mode, our immune systems are weakened… thus making us MORE susceptible to the viruses.
With all of this madness, I would like to cover a lot of things we are seeing and what I hope we learn from this convulsion of coronavirus panic.
Panic Shopping
Yes, in capitalist societies, we sometimes get ourselves into a panic and empty store shelves. This happens every few years for some weird reason or another. We recover relatively quickly though because… capitalism.
Empty shelves are not a “once in a blue moon” event in communist and socialist countries – they are a daily occurrence.
Look at Venezuela over the past few years. Watch this heartbreaking video on the truth of life in a country ravaged by socialism. As sad as it is, the Wuhan Virus might be a welcome relief to a lot of the people there. In fact, the socialist government killed more people in that country in 2018 than the coronavirus has killed in any country so far. Socialist governments always kill. Viruses sometimes kill.
This is your friendly reminder to not vote for socialists of any ilk in any country that you like. If you want it to stay a decent place to live, vote for a capitalist. Even if you think they are disgusting on a personal level. The personality of a leader doesn’t matter – the policies do.
Socialist policies are the death knell of a good society. Capitalist policies will allow you to have a good life and improve your lot in life if you work. Capitalist societies allow you to invest in other businesses and make more money…
Panic in the Markets
This is a massive buying opportunity.
Just like after the crash of 2008, one can get rich buying stocks now and holding for a few years.
The US market will absolutely recover. We don’t know when, but we know the US market will bounce back. As long as we’ve remained a capitalist society, it has recovered from every setback. As long as we stay a capitalist country, it will provide ample opportunity to gain new, higher ground.
The only thing that would ruin this opportunity, and cause you to lose everything you like in this world for good, would be the implementation of socialist policies, like the ones a significant portion of those on the American Left would like to force on everyone.
As a wise investor once said, “Be greedy when others are fearful and fearful when others are greedy.”
It’s buying time if you have extra cash on hand.
Speaking of having things on hands…
Improved Hygiene
Unlike the first two, I hope this trend sticks.
The coronavirus panic has people washing their hands more often. That’s great! If we always wash our hands even after this scare is gone, we might greatly reduce the number of illnesses each year.
That would be a massive win for our healthcare system and business in general.
Healthcare costs would drop as fewer people are seeking medical treatment each year. Fewer people missing work because of illness would increase productivity and output. Businesses making more money could hire more people or increase the pay of those currently on staff.
That’s a lot of big wins all around.
Improved Health
We have a gift of an opportunity to assess what we put in our bodies.
I recently heard it phrased this way: Healthcare is what we do at the grocery store and the gym. Sick care is what we get at the doctor’s office and hospital.
We call what is sick care “healthcare.” If you want to take care of your health, it starts with eating healthy and exercising. Obesity, caused by poor choices in diet and lack of exercise, puts an individual at an astronomically higher risk of disease. The simple solution is to not be obese. Eat healthily and exercise.
Maybe fasting is a good tool. Less food on the shelves doesn’t mean eat all the junk food in boxes you can find. Try fasting for 24 hours. That will help the body rebuild the immune system, which would be great in fighting COVID-19 and the coronavirus panic.
Schooling from Home
Kids are sick little buggers. Even without COVID-19, kids carry and spread the flu like wildfire.
Keeping kids out of the indoctrination houses public school buildings is a great idea.
This would be a lot easier to manage on one-parent income in two-parent households. So maybe this is a good time to check our ideologies and think critically about how much we want to champion things like single-parent households when the repercussions can be drastic. In a single-parent home and a pandemic, the single-parent has the difficult choice to stay home and raise the kids, foregoing income, or work to receive income to cover the bills, foregoing being with and educating (see: parenting) the kids.
On a somewhat lighter note about schools, this coronavirus panic is pushing colleges across the country to use online education. Something that has existed for many years is finally being adopted by stodgy institutions with more administrators than teachers. It makes you wonder why we need administrators and stodgy, propaganda-peddling institutions in the first place…
Seemingly the only things we receive from all those young people being on campuses are more socialists out of touch with reality and outlandish amounts of debt thanks to the preposterous “education” system that binged on administrative bloat and easy money from the federal government.
I hope this wakes people up to the fact that a physical university is no more equipped to educate you or your child than an online course. While one will saddle you with tens of thousands of dollars of debt, the other will cost you tens of dollars.
The prudent choice is clear.
Working from Home
This is another trend with far-reaching benefits if we keep it going.
With people more concerned about contracting or spreading the COVID-19 virus, they are opting to work from home.
This is fantastic. What a great time to show businesses that people can be productive from their homes. We don’t all need to be gathered every day for work to get finished on time. In fact, we may find that people are more productive working from home.
The coronavirus panic may not help with productivity, as stress isn’t helpful for brain function. So it’s not going to be a conclusive test. This will open the door however to trying more work from home for businesses that aren’t based on brick and mortar sales.
Research has shown working from home tends to increase happiness, which increases health and productivity. Not having to be in rush hour traffic saves people an average of an hour per day! That alone is enough to rejoice!
Not being exposed to various co-worker distractions and germs is another positive side effect of more working from home.
With fewer people commuting during rush hour, the traffic levels will be much more manageable for those who can’t work from home. This will make commutes far less stressful, which will increase productivity long after the coronavirus panic subsides.
Speaking of traveling…
Fewer People Flying
I don’t think this trend needs to stick for long. I think this is a good lesson for airlines to have more cash on hand and treat their customers better.
Maybe this will force airlines to lower prices to get and keep flights more full. As the flight will happen either way, it might as well be full. Instead of the current tactic of price gouging people for buying last-minute tickets… maybe try offering last-minute deals!
This is also a huge opportunity for anyone who wants to launch a new airline and do things differently (see: better). It’s also a massive opportunity for things like high-speed rail projects. Nobody wants to get on a crowded train today, because of the coronavirus panic, but they would love a cheaper alternative to flying in the long-term. Hyperloop and other companies laying the groundwork on this today stand to make massive profits in the near future.
With business travel becoming a cuttable expense, something wise business owners will do is…
Increase Focus On Digital Marketing
Here’s my self-serving plug. Thanks, Capitalism!
With all these people staying at home and staring at their devices even more than usual, there is a huge opportunity for savvy business owners to get more attention now so they can win big when the coronavirus panic dissipates.
Now is not the time to give up hope or shrink your business. The same logic applies here as it does in investing. There will be plenty of business owners in every industry scaling everything back and trying to play it safe. They won’t invest in their online operations. Do the opposite and you stand to reap massive rewards!
Contact me to get a conversation started about how to grow your business during and after a pandemic!
Conclusion
You don’t need to panic. That doesn’t do anyone any good.
Please be smart, be healthy, be safe. There’s no need for panic.
You can weather this storm. We can rise from this together.
To your health and success!