Predictions?

[ravan]

Well, not really. Things are too much on the cusp, able to go either way. So I have possibilities, not predictions.
Positive:

1. Three or more viable vaccines get rolled out quickly once Biden is in office


2. Georgia runoffs pull McConnell's "Grim Reaper" powers


3. The new Congress does valid and sustained Pandemic relief


4. New Congress does M4A or other single payer scheme, stabilizing our healthcare infrastructure


5. EIC become more like UBI


6. States like CA increase their UI stipend


7. WFH becomes common, displacing open plan offices as the default (it's cheaper)


8. Indictments of the Trump Crime Family and associates in State courts

Negative:

1. Increased right wing terror attacks because White Supremacists are butt hurt that their champion Trump wasn't re-elected


2. Increased compromise of critical systems due to the failure of the Trumpists to prevent it (they possibly aided it)


3. Anti-vaxx conspiracies cost thousands more lives, with thousands of vaccine and mask refusenicks becoming a permanent carrier class.


4. Congress people, including pandemic denialists, will cut in line for vaccines while spreading anti-vaxx bullshit conspiracy theories.


5. More hospitals close as health care workers burn out of die due to the pandemic. Rationing care becomes common for an overstressed system, while Health Care and Health Insurance corporations rake in increasing profits.


6. The dying isn't over. Before we can get everyone vaccinated, because of the Trumpist's incompetence on vaccine roll-out, we will lose at least another 100,000 to covid. This didn't have to happen, but there's nothing that the incoming administration can do immediately to fix it.


7. The "Quarterly Earnings Call" mentality in corporation s will increase, prioritizing even more short term gain over long term sustainability and solid innovation and growth


8. If the Dems don't control Congress, small businesses will continue to be shafted, making the entrepreneurial environment extremely limited and risky. Corporatocracy could prosper, to the detriment of working people of all levels.


9. More super contagious and/or super lethal varieties of Covid will emerge, making the vaccine roll-out a race against the clock.


10. The conspiracy-fueled politics and fantasies on the right will get worse, more bizarre, and more cultish (yes it's possible). This will cause civil unrest as they act out their fantasies.

Mixed:

1. Numerous Congress people and their staffs will end up with Covid due to reckless campaigning and mask rejection. The trail of bodies is just beginning. Depending on who dies, this is a mixed outcome.


2. Gig work becomes more prevalent. While it allows quick bucks on the side, it is not sustainable as full time work.


3. Tech will increase their demand for H1(b) indentures, thereby freezing out minorities and older workers and suppressing wages. Sorta good for existing H1(b) folks, bad for women, minorities and older tech workers.


4. Space exploration will increase, but mostly as a rich person's toy, and the tech gains from it will be limited and closely held.


5. A lot of countries will try for energy independence, but the US will drag it's feet while the petrochemical corps whine and lobby against it.


6. Breakthroughs in energy tech may end up suppressed or overly expensive due to energy company anti-competitive practices.


7. The "New Normal" will be a mix of pre-covid and during-covid behaviors. Whether it's the best of both, the worst of both, or a mixed bag remains to be seen.

There may be more added as I think of them.