A Layman's Take on Social Distancing  

Who Knew?  I was already “Social Distancing”-ing ahead of schedule, my life already incorporates it. I also discovered the Walmart grocery delivery service a few months back (because I was not comfortable parking my expensive electric bike outside the store for even a short while. 

That is a good thing in light of this Pandemic jumping off here-about, and due to my membership in the virus “dead pool” target demographic: 60+ yrs. Old with chronic underlaying issues.  I usually don’t pay much attention to the seasonal influenzas or stuff like SARS, MERS, West Nile, etc… I learned to avoid those because if I get sick, I pretty much get pneumonia immediately afterwards (and I really don’t like hospitals). 

I used to live a more social life, back in the day. Unfortunately, most of my close friends were either left behind when I ditched California for good, they moved to other countries for retirement or they just died off. Now, I live a fairly quiet life sharing a house with my brother who’s close to my age and some skittish cats. Most of my acquaintances of the last decade weren’t given my new address after I moved 16 months ago. The ones that I am usually glad to see just don’t stop by as much anymore. 

I never thought I’d live to this age, so I’m on the “Work-’till-you-drop” retirement plan and consequently don’t go out for entertainment, dining and drinks much. So, I’m already “Social Distant.” However, I can’t imagine how the rest of the population, with their various social media needs will fare. They’ll probably deny that this pandemic is an issue, based on the fact that the government and media “cried wolf” pretty much every time a new bug has come along in the last three decades.  

Some people under 40 did not care because the pandemic was not reported to hurt them (yet), even though the government and media are pushing this one hard. Good for them! The gene pool needs a little sweeping prior to their breeding time… Apparently, some of the feel the same about my cohort; I’ve heard that some Snow-Flakes & Twenty-Nothings were calling this Pandemic a “Boomer Remover.” 

I have already been sorely affected by this one economically, my brother having just lost his job in a travel related / dependent industry, and I’ve been forced to take my “vacation time” from my job. I suspect that the economic difficulties coming down the pike will eventually cut into all of the socializing done (or not) in the future for the lack of funds all around. Social Distancing is going to take a big bite out of the economy that is more dependent on service jobs than manufacturing. Shortly to follow will be the managers of those service industry jobs and any industry that supports it. Sometimes shit rolls uphill too. 

Essentially working in a retail industry, I’ll probably be left high & dry when the economic tide goes out. I’m a pessimist about the near future, based on what I see now and what I’ve seen in past economic down-turns. On the Bright Side, maybe this virus will not hit the “dead pool target” and take me out in this next year, and I’ll keep my job for one more year until Social Security kicks in… But what’ll it look like by then?

My Layman’s (no special knowledge or expertise) take is; I don’t think this is going to turn out well.