Over the decades I have noticed a lot of loose talk about the “Middle Class”. Most recently I read something by a computer geek who claims that computers eliminated the Middle Class. My immediate comment was that the MC was doomed to decline from its first moment. After further consideration, I realized that the problem is with definition. What has been called the MC since WW II may be near the middle of the socio economic spectrum, but is what was more accurately called the Working Class, and that
The shape of government will change everywhere after the Great Pandemic will decrease population by 80%, and the politics involved with the governments will also change. Teasing apart the results of the changes is difficult, and it is likely that new elements will arise, but the general political culture of most countries would be unchanged, and that means that there will be cut-throat politics in the U.S. Just as one can read the political satires of Jonathan Swift from the early 18th centuries
When the Great Pandemic will eliminate 80% of the population the demand for goods and services will be reduced at the same rateand that will have a proportional effect on the economy. The drop in demand will result in an immediate drop in prices of everything that is bought and sold. Prices of food and other perishable goods will drop greatly, but the prices will rebound, because supplies will need to be replenished regularly, but durable goods do not need frequent replacement. Production machinery
Governments have several legitimate functions these days: to try to regulate activities, to provide services that are not profitable but are still essential, and to fill the pockets of the higher-ups; in addition, governments try to tell every Harry, Sue, John, and Jane how he or she should live his life in all details. After the population drops to 20% of its present level there won’t be enough people available for government service, so government will not be able intrude into the lives of people
Since we have already determined that there are two potential events that would cause mass destruction that have probabilities that are high enough to think about: an asteroid hit and a deadly pandemic.
There are too many variables to make more than very general comments about changes in population that would result from an asteroid strike, because the strike could hit anywhere on Earth and the results would be determined by the location and the size of the asteroid. The loss in
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