We often speak of SHTF moments as when things go wrong temporarily, like a hurricane or tornado, or Covid-19. EOWAWKI is saved for the BIG things like an EMP when everything is going to come to a halt and it will be decades before things get back to something like “normal”
Right now, I’m going to try to convince you that we have this all backwards!
Lets be honest, Covid-19 has changed the world as we know it. Retail stores will never recover. The switch to on-line buying, something that would have taken years to take over, has happened. How long before restaurants recover, particularly the small ones in business districts? If retail goes down, all those little food malls do too. Little restaurants around offices have already closed, and only if people return to commuting to offices to work will they be revived. The switch to Telecommuting, something people have been lobbying for has happened and companies have discovered IT IS GOOD! Of course, not the people who wanted to work from home want to go back to the office. . . but that’s another story. Businesses are now finding they don’t need to rent 20,000 square feet of office space and spend on the utilities and insurance. There might be a switch to something smaller where people will come in once a week and share desk space – 5 people needing one desk. and what about the people who work in public transit? Less commuters means less trains, plains, and automobiles!
Word is over 8 million people are behind on their rent. While they have been saved eviction, that rent money hasn’t been waived and WILL come due. Where will they get the money if they no longer have jobs? and what about the people to whom that rent was paid? It is estimated that at least a 1/3 of those rentors were individuals who used it has income to pay their own bills. Not all fat cats, but people struggling to grab hold of their American Dream. Now THEY are going into bankruptcy. and when those 8 million people find themselves evicted, where are they going other than homeless encampments.
It is now being suggested that will be wearing masks going forward, that they will become as standard for American citizens as they are in Asian countries where they are considered to be “polite”.
And we still don’t know if we will be seeing reactions, side effects, or other unintended consequences to the vaccines.
So yes, this has been an End of the World as We Know It event! Life around the world will never be the same. and yet, for most of us, we are living our lives as usual, feeling the impact, but not to any detrimental effect. For most of us, it won’t really matter much if Nordstroms closes, or if a restaurant changes hands. Our shopping habits have likely permanently changed (who is still buying 4 packs of TP any more?). Will home delivery of alcohol ever go away?
And lets look closer at the term. If you are a family and your child gets sick and dies, isn’t that a life changer? Or you’re in your 50’s with minimal savings because you’ve got a couple of kids in college now and you lose your job and find yourself living in your car. A life changer for sure. Or you have a heart attack? go deaf? all End of the World as YOU know it!
Here in the Southwest we are facing mega drought. as of this writing the water at Hoover Dam is just above the 35% capacity mark. The turbines at Hoover Dam stop making electricity at 33% capacity. To keep making electricity, they keep letting water out of the dam. This is an excerpt from the Hoover Dam site:
“The hydroelectric power generated by the dam is allocated between the states of Nevada, Arizona, ten cities in Southern California, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and Southern California Edison Company.
The latter two and the city of Los Angeles account for nearly half of the electric power received.”
Is the grid ready to pick up the difference if Hoover Dam cannot continue to produce power? AND are the cities of the SW that rely on Colorado River water ready to live without if we get to that point? and will the entire United States feel the impact of this small section of the country having a failure of water and electricity?
So what is the difference between SHTF and EOWAWKI events? your personal EOWAWKI or SHTF event is not everyones. Your communities hurricane or tornado does not effect everyone. and while most would call Covid-19 a SHTF event, it is truly an EOWAWKI event on a world wide scale! If the drought in the southwest seriously reduces food production for the planet, is that SHTF or EOWAWKI? If its for a year, SHTF? and if its for a decade EOWAWKI?
Maybe we just need to accept that the S has already HTF, and life will never been the same again.