Covid-19 has been a good teacher. But the content of the lessons has come fast, furious, and in abundance. I'm tryin to break the flood of information down to bitesize morsels in the hope we won't forget too soon. Lesson 1 was about the invisible workers; Lesson 2 is about the forgotten ones out in the street.
Lesson 1 covered the pillars of civilization, the people who keep our surroundings clean and keep the rat king at bay. Lesson 2 will go into the public services that are graciously overlooked until it is too late. They aren't invisible, the political left and right have been busy reducing the money going there to make sure there is more to stuff their own pockets.
One service that is always overlooked is the fire brigade. If no one remembers to light up at least one house a month, some political dimwits (ok, they are all dimwitted, or they wouldn't be in politics) will find a way to cut the budget and divert it into their own pockets. Once they houses are burning, they are the first to blame the fire brigade for not doing its job. They hope that dimwitted people like themselves will believe that and forget that it was the same politicians that had crippled the service by starving it of money. We can look forward to closing down most fire stations once politicians try to find money after Covid-19.
Then we have the police. There are two ways of killing the law enforcement. One is to reduce it to a skeletal force that can't keep up with anything. The administration with all the overpaid managerial posts stay the same (after all one is the brother or cousin of the politicians who suck out the money); the investigative arms and the street security officers are sacked. Only petty crime can be investigated because statistics go by quantity, not quality. See, we managed to solve the same amount of crimes as before (net worth before was 1 billion, now it is 1 million).
The second way to kill the law enforcement is to leave it the money it needs and then misappropriate it into the favorite hobbyhorses of politicians. Instead of investing into the education of the officers, some obscure target group is set up that will prosecute anyone with a cat (because the politician in charge is allergic to cat hair), or homeless people because they are dirty and smell. What police officers need is education; the unlearning of knee jerk reactions like black is bad, or something in their hands are always guns, or girls and boys claiming rape always lie.
We can look forward to one of two scenarios. Either the money is sucked out to cover Covid-19 costs; or it's pumped into a special force to investigate people who haven't spent their stimulus checks in the US or people who really stayed at home when told to in the UK.
The third group is not quite as forgotten now than it usually is. The specialists who man the ambulances have the enviable task of attending case scenarios all the time. Anything from the real victims of ill health, attacks, or accidents to the abusers of alcohol, drugs, and food (aka people dying of their own volition by piling on fat and never moving a muscle to do something about it). For all their trouble, there are people who try to accuse them when they can't unload at the hospitals. Be real. After Covid-19, we can expect them to suffer as money is diverted into the NHS.
Did you think you were suffering under Covid-19 until now? Just you wait. Politicians will make you suffer in ways Covid-19 will never be able to. Don't forget that it was you who were stupid enough to elect these greedy dimwits into the positions where they can make your life hell.
Further reading
Covid-19 Lesson 1
Spanish Flu And Covid-19
How Economy Works
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