The End of the Handshake

How COVID-19 may change society in the years to come

Social distancing occurring on a sidewalk in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

I’ve been very curious about how the global impact of coronavirus will change our lives and culture long after it disappears. Here are some predictions, or maybe more appropriately, my hopeful thinking, about what we may see in the years to come.

• Monthly Universal Basic Income (UBI) is implemented providing a safety net for those most in need.
• Schools implement digital learning standards providing the tools for all kids to take advantage of education from anywhere.
• TSA legally blocks traveling while sick, checks passengers’ biodata. Less disease spreads via airlines with faster outbreak response times and upgraded regional quarantine procedures.
• Supply chain sovereignty is taken more seriously. The production of medical supplies for a country is moved back home.
• Sick days are required and unlimited. No employer or peer pressure to come to work when sick.
• Many new remote workers will never go back to an office. Commutes and emissions drop.
• Exodus from big cities to rural communities. Residential and commercial real estate prices drop in the urban core. Downtowns need to find ways to reinvent themselves similar to what malls had to do over the past decade.