Ignoring Second Order Effects

The COVID lockdowns have been a mad rush to protect the interests of the primarily older upper middle class. Putting your life on pause for a couple of years in your 20s is catastrophic, in your 50s not so much.

Young people are at the breaking point:

Last in line for vaccines and with schools and universities shuttered, young people have borne much of the burden of the sacrifices being made largely to protect older people

In the United States, a quarter of 18- to 24-year-olds said they had seriously considered suicide.

The lasting effects on suicide rates, depression and anxiety are still being measured, but in interviews, a dozen mental health experts in Europe painted a grim picture of a crisis that they say should be treated as seriously as containing the virus.

We may realize in the coming years that the lockdowns were far worse for society than the virus ever was and highlights a slow shift in our values away from investing in to future to paying anything to protect the status quo for boomers.

By the way, Meg Jay’s TED talk about not wasting your 20s was incredibly important for me during those formative years.