It took coronavirus to highlight many of our society’s absurdities

We’ve seen, heard, and felt the tides changing for a while now. It’s why we named our company Reverse Tide. Something different has been on the horizon. The world that previous generations built was crumbling under a broken political, economic, and social system. Those in power have been fighting to maintain it, after benefiting for so long. But too many trends were converging…

• The world has been aging
• New leaders from different generations have been emerging
• Technology has been changing industries year after year
• Political winds have been moving in one direction or another
• Long held beliefs and traditions have been challenged

The list could go on endlessly. We just knew that a new world was inevitable. There was only one problem with this emerging change prediction: what would spark the change?

Then along comes Covid-19. Almost abruptly, the world has been turned upside-down. Old school leaders in complete denial of the problem think we can just truck onward or take a few weeks pause and all will be well. As of the date this was written, no leader has offered a long-term strategy for what comes next. Lockdowns, quarantines, flatten the curve. But what then? A virus doesn’t just disappear after it has found every corner of the globe. It’s here long-term and nobody seems to have any plan for what comes next. Not surprising for a world in dire need of change.

We won’t speculate on what is next. The world is in for a tragedy beyond belief.

But in these extraordinary times, we can reflect on what life was like just a few weeks ago. Many absurdities we accepted as normal actually lack logic or explanation. History books will point to these with disbelief. Which are we talking about? A few to consider…

How much debt we’re in.

Every level of society has mind-boggling debt. Federal level (and just about every country). States and municipalities. Corporations. Households. We never seem to really wince when we see the accumulation of that debt at a population level. However, it’s absurd.

Debt, if managed reasonably, can be a good thing. Taking a loan to expand your business can be a great investment. The idea is that you will make more money in the long-run than the loan costs over that same time period. The same can be said about buying a house to invest in your family or a government taking out a bond to build infrastructure or future well-being.

However, debt is a claim on the future. When you spend now, you’re making yourself temporarily wealthier and poorer in the future. If the investment pays off, great. But when those debt levels get sky high (as they have been accumulating for years and even decades), they become more than just unproductive. At some stage, you have so much debt that your future looks bleak. In many cases, it can become near-mathematically impossible to pay it all back. That is the case at various government levels, corporations, and many households.

Our debt levels across the board are absurd. Households will see that and stop paying mortgages, student loans, and credit cards. Businesses won’t be able to pay rent or other loans. Local governments won’t be able to service their debt. While the federal government can print money, we’re paying for that in future inflation and will also see skyrocketing national debt. The US national debt implies that every citizen currently owes $70,000. We have to pay that back and that number keeps climbing rapidly. This was inevitably going to be true regardless of coronavirus. It merely sped up the inevitable (and sped it up on steroids).

Our debt addiction has long been absurd. It has been far too readily available and has gone long past the point of productive. While it’s impossible at this point to see any level of silver lining with the current crisis, we can only hope that our debt reliance culture becomes a thing of the past so we can build a thriving future.

Designer labels.

How dumb is it that we’re running around paying 10x the price because of a brand name? Clothing, accessories, furniture, cars, electronics… the list is long. How much premium have we paid lifetime because we HAVE to get the cool or high-priced brand?

Take clothing as a great example. It’s cheaper to fly to Vietnam, stay there for a week, buy 5 perfectly tailored suits (selecting any color or material quality), and fly home than it costs to buy a single designer suit in New York. That’s absurd. Suits are one of the more absurd examples too because you don’t even see the brand name on them.

We are paying for status. The quality is often only marginally better and search around enough, maybe worse. And that status is meaningless. Nobody cares what kind of furniture or other brand names you own. It’s all in our head. Coronavirus has given us an overnight wake up call. Now we sit around the house in our sweatpants and are happy to be comfortable. The designer stuff will sit unused in the closet.

Commuting.

Look back and think about how time we spent commuting to work over the past few years. Now that many jobs have been locked down, we’ve realized that a lot of it is unnecessary. So many office jobs never required us to be there in-person. Our technology tools enable great communication and collaboration. In fact, we might be more productive when we lack the distractions and endless meetings.

Commuting to jobs that require in-person presence makes perfect sense. As the world goes more local and cities becomes less desirable, hopefully traffic decreases and long commutes are less necessary. For office jobs, business travel, and other unnecessary commuting, this absurd practice needs to and likely will go.

The American university.

Now that classes are being held remotely, many are questioning how this possibly costs tens of thousands in tuition per year. Most of these lectures can be substituted for free on sources like Youtube or Khan Academy or for a low price in other sources. We at Reverse Tide have proven that cost, access, and equal/greater quality is possible for the most important job skills (using our many skill based learning paths).

Truthfully, much of those tuition dollars go to the things that we’ve quickly found are non-essential to student learning — research, athletics, buildings, and administration. This pandemic has proven that the world doesn’t end and instruction isn’t worse off with those things absent. But now the question goes deeper. Having a person lecture for a few hours a week certainly doesn’t actually cost $10–50k/year. In fact, you could probably get expert-level private tutoring for cheaper and greater efficiency.

At Reverse Tide, we have shown a path to go from zero to job-ready in various technology, marketing, and business subjects for less than $1000 (and that includes both getting experience and help putting together a winning job application). Now that society is finally questioning the quality, inefficiencies, and cost, we’ll see universities either adapt or go out of business. And we’ll finally challenge the absurd notion that kids should make life-altering debt choices at age 18. This has ruined far too many people and will soon come to an end.

The silly partisan squabbles.

Look at how many real problems we have in the United States. A health care system that is inaccessible to millions. A completely broken immigration system. A military that outspends the rest of the world combined. Trillion dollar deficits in the supposed best economy ever. The debt levels we talked about before. Climate change projections that have existential consequences. Pension systems that are mathematically impossible to pay out. An embarrassing infrastructure for a country of our wealth. Extreme wealth inequality, primarily driven by a stated inflation policy. A tax system where some of the wealthiest corporations pay nothing. A Federal Reserve that controls key policy and is owned by the banking system that has been bailed out for a decade. Out of control obesity, drug addiction, and other health issues. Multi-year long election cycles with billions spent. Deteriorating education. Corporate media that better resembles propaganda machines than an independent press. Sickening murders and violence happening every day.

Despite all these real issues that truly affect everyone in the population, we don’t even debate many of these issues. Half are never even mentioned. The other half get political sound bytes and no serious action. Yet we find plenty of time to scream at each other over which bathroom people should use, who Tweeted what, speculation of who will win an election in 2 years, and what the opposing media outlets said. Complete nonsense stuff takes up nearly 100% of the national discussion. And the few times someone brings up the real issues, the opposite side will almost definitely oppose it regardless of merit. This guarantees that it will never be solved.

Absurd. Even though we all know it, we have either been apathetic or engaged in it. It took coronavirus to realize how big governments and media failed us when it counted the most. Look back and that has been a trend for many years and is true of both sides and at every level — national, state, and local. Hopefully we can stop the media division, partisan bickering, and come together to solve very serious problems that have been vastly amplified by coronavirus.

What else? Politics aside (as we’re tired of that!!!), what other absurd social things have we accepted? Might there at least be hope of realizing those absurdities and moving forward productively? We hope that admitting the problem is the first step toward improvement.

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Reverse Tide is the leader in learning and career enhancement. By examining modern trends and future perspective simultaneously, we provide resources for people to improve and accomplish their goals.

Our learning paths provide high quality opportunities to learn technology, marketing, and business skills. Our career resources help people get experience, submit winning job applications (resumes, portfolios, and more), upskill toward better career prospects, start businesses, and freelance successfully.

More to come but visit us today!