First and foremost, let me preface this with the fact that I am not celebrating the outbreak in any way, nor am I happy about the things that are likely to come to pass over the next six months. My intent here is to ask how to make the best of a bad situation. We are at the start of a once-in-a-lifetime shakeup of the economy.
A long time ago, there was an MMM article about the whole world shifting toward frugality and badassity. The ideas were met with a high amount of negativity from outside the community, and even some within the community, because the economic shock would be unpalatable. Well guess what? Now that economic shock is upon us! One thought that is already making its way through my social media friends is that "at least the pollution levels in China (and now Italy is showing similar improvement) are going way down" and that this outbreak might be buying some time for the environment. And at least part of the frugality/FIRE movement involves environmental responsibility.
I am starting to think that this hard-stop could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help reshape the economy in a way that isn't so dependent on consumer culture and fossil fuels, but I have no idea how to start planting that idea in the people that I talk to. What are some things that we can all do to help encourage these ideals when the economy does start to re-engage? Standard politicians and economists will want to get back to where we were as quickly as possible, but I think we can hi-jack this thought, and rebuild better than it was before! An economy not so focused on consuming more, more, more could wind up being a great economy indeed. I just have no idea how to convey this message. Do you have any thoughts? Am I delusional to think that we can take such control over things? Can we help steer the future away from the edge of climate change? Can the world economy shift away from GDP growth as the measure of a "healthy" economy toward things like a "happiness index" that takes quality of life into account? Can the world be built to incentivize people in power to "do the right thing" for the good of humanity, and leave profit as a distant second?
How can we lay the groundwork to such a utopia? What are the small steps that we can each take to lead and guide the way?
