b'By Jim and Bobbi Jeen Olson,WesternTradingPost.comM ost of us have a relative or maybe knew someone who lived through the Great Depression. The world perspective from those who lived through that time was forever altered. They knew in the back of their minds the effects of that disastrous event and they unconsciously lived their lives differently because of it. They thought a certain way and believed in little sayings such as waste not, want not or save for a rainy day and it was ingrained in them to not throw things away which still could be used again and so on. Over time, subsequent generations forgot about the extremely hard times that generation went through. Currently, we are once again living on the edge of another global event that will alter life as we once knew it. The novel coronavirus or COVID19 may or may not be as serious as what they make it out to be. Folks argue both ways but one thing is for sure, it pretty much shut the world down. If you think things will go back to normal when the stay at home orders are done, kind of like turning the switch back on, you are in for a rude awakening. Very little will go back to business as usual when this is over. Entire industries are changing. Evolving. How long do you think it will be before the majority of people will want to attend large public events? Eat in restaurants? Fly on crowded airplanes? Take a cruise? Eventually, a vaccine or cure will be found (which could take 1 to 2 years according to experts). Folks will slowly forget about social distancing as time goes by. We will someday be comfortable enough to attend a crowded beach or a sporting event or eat in a packed restaurant but that will take a whilemaybe years. In the meantime, the world will already have adapted new ideas and ways of doing things.spend tomorrows money As of the time of this writing, most of the stay at home orders are slowly beingtoday. Collectively we have lifted but that does not mean things will get back to normal any time soon. Notbeen kicking the can down by any stretch of the imagination. There are a lot of folks who will not have a jobthe road and not thinking of to go back to. On the other hand, there are a lot of folks who figured out that theyconsequences. Let someone can work just fine from home. A lot of people learned they can sell knick-knackselse worry about our problems online and bring in as much money as they were making at low to moderatelyin the future. Then this virus paying jobs. There are even some who are making more on unemploymentcomes along and exposesright now than they were working. Why should they want to go back to work?our weaknesses sooner than I guarantee you, they wont. Not until the extra unemployment subsidies thewe thought.government is kicking in go away will many return to work (thats assuming there will even be a job to be had). But how long will that take? We could go on about things that will never go back to normal. About the true state of our economy and the ripple effects which will be felt from this The ripple effects from COVID19 will be felt both socially and economicallypandemic for years to come. We could speculate on whether we are just in a for years to come. For example, how much sales tax do you think your state orrecession or heading for worse. But there is a better idea. A more constructive local government took in during April? It was a fraction of the normal amountthought process.depending on where you are at. This is going to be the case for at least March through Mayprobably much longer. As of right now, the federal governmentLets look around and think about what business models and situations may has been pumping tons of money into the system to help make up for shortages.survive this unprecedented situation and what will not fare well. What will have Quantitative easing. Stimulus packages. Eventually, that will have to end as wellto change and what may get back to some sort of normaleventually. Study on it and when it does, taxes will have to rise to make up for shortcomings (either thatand then figure out how to get ahead of the game. New industries are being born or budgets will have to be cut and bureaucrats rarely do that).or drastically reshaped daily. New ways of doing business are being thought of now. New ideas abound in many areas. Some industries will thrive because of all Something else we should consider is, where does the federal government get allthis. There is a spot in this upcoming new world for all of us. The exciting part this money they are passing out? Almost unbelievably, they are just printing it!isif you are one of the innovatorsthere will be great opportunity. Creating money out of thin air and backing it with IOUs. A scary little fact that is not reported on much is on May 5th, 2020, our national debt hit 25 TRILLION.Its a well-known fact there were many, many millionaires made during the At the current rate of spending, we could easily hit 50 trillion within 5 years. OurGreat Depression. This was not by accident. While many were suffering and federal government is broke but still throwing money around like they have agiving up, others were adapting and innovating. We have that chance now. Do printing press for it. Oh wait, they do! not look back except for educational purposes. The past is not coming back. Do not whine about what is lost and lament the way things used to be. That is What many do not think about is the long term effects that printing money incounterproductive. Instead, lets look around at what is going on today and think this manner will have on us. Inflation? Higher taxes? The devaluation of theabout how we can improve the situation for tomorrow. The more value we can dollar? As a whole, our country has not been thinking about the long term effectsbring to society today and tomorrowthe greater the reward.of our actions since the generation who went through the Great Depression left the workforce. For many years we have collectively lived our lives withAlthough not much will go back to the way it was before, we should be excited a perspective more like that of the Roaring 20s where folks threw moneyabout the plethora of possible opportunities coming down the pike. Be an around like it grew on trees and the good times would never end. We tend toinnovator as the world around us changes like never before! 38 June 2020'