Many are understandably focused on the short term effects of COVID-19, and what needs to be done in the here and now. However, even though it's not easy to pause and reflect on broader concerns, there are possible long term effects of the pandemic which likewise deserve a careful response.
In particular, this pandemic exposes the fragile nature of how societies currently manage and reimburse their most important knowledge providers. History has made evident, how some pandemics culminate in events which undermine such systems. Skills arbitrage as the sole means of knowledge provision and application, is less sustainable over the long run than it may appear. All the more so, since compensation for these skills is compromised through over reliance on debt arrangements. Too many currently provided services, include vague expectations of reimbursement later in time from future generations. But what if something about this arrangement, should radically change? For instance, suppose future generations lack a sufficient level of income to fulfill yesterday's promises?
Whenever substantial levels of societal wealth are lost, pandemics tend to impact how people organize their lives at basic levels of operational capacity. These losses are only exacerbated whenever applied knowledge is too closely held in high density populations, as is currently the case in our productive regions. If the economic patterns of major cities are disrupted, productive capacity becomes all the more important elsewhere, to ensure that vital threads of current information and applied knowledge can continue. We need to ensure that knowledge and skill can be encouraged and maintained via a full range of population densities and intellectual abilities. The more places and settings where skills capacity is fully tapped, the better prepared civilizations could become, to face moments of crisis and uncertainty.
Clearly, we should no longer rationalize that it is somehow reasonable, to limit the use of valued knowledge and skill to areas of high population densities. But how to begin the vital task of reinvigorating small communities? Even though I've long argued for time arbitrage as a way to do so, admittedly a part of me is now overwhelmed by current events. I find myself wishing "if only" such processes had been put into motion earlier, so the preservation of already existing human capital, might also be a simpler matter.
Alas, I did not realize how the need for new knowledge use patterns, would become particularly relevant during my own lifetime. Like many others, I feel as though being swept along in a vast tide of change - one which makes me question my own ability to return safely to shore this time. And like many, I'm not certain whether it is still feasible to craft a fully effective response, or to safely bypass the political battles now occurring. If only new patterns of wealth creation had already been pursued in earnest! Dare we still hope that much of our wealth is not lost in the years to come? Can our most productive areas still reach out to other regions, in hopes of lifting them up?
Meanwhile, society continues moving in the opposite direction, as exemplified by additional closings of rural hospitals. As it turns out, hospitals - despite their institutional importance - are exceedingly fragile in economic terms. If we are to deal successfully with the present crisis, we also need for healthcare to transition from the fragility of skills arbitrage, to the open ended and simpler nature of time arbitrage. Time arbitrage would not attempt to offer "perfect" solutions. Rather, it would seek to remain present for all concerned. In time arbitrage, patients could hopefully express what they need from others, and perhaps gain a real chance of being taken seriously. Sometimes, when illness strikes, it's not so much survival which is at stake, but rather finding the most peaceful way possible to overcome one's fear of the unknown. Each of us as patients deserves in moments of fear, not to have to face those moments completely alone.
Healthcare could be envisioned as a most basic element of organizational potential, for all citizens of community. Healthcare provision in all its countless variations, deserves to be part of the reciprocity of mutual assistance. Such assistance could eventually be paid in the real time of people who are alive today, instead of future generations which deserve better than to be saddled with debt obligations of a past which never really belonged to them. We can build meaningful ways to be with others in their moments of greatest need, and yet do so without bankrupting anyone or anything. It's time to build anew, starting with more flexible versions of rural hospital organizational patterns.
As Marc Andreessen recently noted, "We're all necessary, and we can all contribute to building." Should we embrace the mindset of crafting stronger realities, we also gain the ability to create long term solutions which can benefit governments as well. We might finally be able to offer our governments a viable path to address the debt burdens they have already accumulated. Living with one another on reciprocal terms in the here and now, is no small matter. Let's get started. Again, we are all in this together.
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