A Simpler Life? - Society / Economy after the Virus

[Josquius]

Also the high street is an important place from the perspective of identity and community. People see it as a sort of barometer for the health of their community - and they're right. Especially now it's not necessary you can normally tell how well a town/village is doing based on the high street because the shops and cafes etc are purely luxury.

I wouldn't be surprised if there's a link between closed shops on the high street and votes for, say, UKIP or the Brexit Party. I think there was something similar in France that found a link between villages that had/didn't have a shop and support for the FN.

Thats what I was referring to with what I saw in Japan.
Towns just aren't towns anymore. They're nothing but vast stretches of housing. If they didn't have such a well developed railway system to point out the town centre as a significant place you wouldn't notice it in most.
I really think this is linked to all aspects of things being messed up there right down to their birth rate issues.

[Sheilbh]

So one interesting observation - you couldn't get a one bed flat in zones 1-3 in London for under £1-1,200. I'm now seeing flats for rent at about £8-900.

I wonder if this is the impact of the thousands of AirBnBs suddenly coming onto the market. If that's so we either need to police current regulations or make them stricter.

[Grey Fox]

Outlawing AirBnB, actually all those gig economy apps, is the way to go. Especially if you are not American. Let's stop giving rich conservative american venture capitalist sway over our nations.

[Tamas]

Jesus Christ, people.


FIrst of all the death of high street doesn't mean you can only shop online, alright.

And guess what, in the small town where my parents live, small grocery stores, a butcher's etc. are perfectly fine because THEY STILL MAKE SENSE. The distance from supermarkets is big enough that people are putting up with their premiums for daily shopping.

There's correlation between the death of stores and the rise of retards because if a village/town goes to the shitters then people who can earn money leave and the shops thus reduce in numbers, and all you have left are the elderly,  and the useless 'tards.

The notion that you need to have shops on the high street to socialise is, I am sorry, laughable. If people want to go there and socialise they don't HAVE to shop. If they don't want to socialise then having to attend expensive shops with a range of selection miniscule compared to supermarkets let alone the Internet will not change that.

The only bigger marketing BS than this high street QQ is the one justifying the taxi driver guilds as customer protection.

[mongers]

Outlawing AirBnB, actually all those gig economy apps, is the way to go. Especially if you are not American. Let's stop giving rich conservative american venture capitalist sway over our nations.

Are your suggesting vulture capitalism is a virus and we need a vaccine?

[Richard Hakluyt]

The corner shops in my neighbourhood were at their lowest ebb about 10 years ago; since then they have expanded. As for the high street, many shops have closed but have been replaced to a certain extent by cafes, small supermarkets, alehouses and restaurants............for me these developments are an improvement 

[Syt]

It depends on where you look. In my current upper middle class neighborhood shops get replaced by trendy shops - the food du jour places, artison muffin shops, that kind of thing. At the same time, in the 6 years I've lived in this area some shops have been empty for the entire time, likely because of the rents required to pay.

Compare with my previous haunts, working class/immigrant area. An old shop would close and a cell phone or kebab shop would spring up. On Quellenstraße, between Favoritenstraße and Laxenburger Straße (about 700 meters, maybe), there were probably 6 or 7 kebab places. Fortunately, the amount of sports betting places has gone down a bit in recent years.

[Sheilbh]

The corner shops in my neighbourhood were at their lowest ebb about 10 years ago; since then they have expanded. As for the high street, many shops have closed but have been replaced to a certain extent by cafes, small supermarkets, alehouses and restaurants............for me these developments are an improvement 

Yeah I think this happens, it's why I think people aren't wrong to associate the wider economic health of their community with the high street.

I think it does give a sense of identity and community to an area and a sort-of sense of wellbeing. I think business rates are a huge issue which I'd get rid of - and also I'd pedestrianise more, it's something businesses always hate the idea of but every time it's done it increases trade (not least because practically the way you shop on a high street is park somewhere and walk up and down, not park at each shop).

But I wouldn't even oppose something like potemkin high streets.

[Tamas]

Outlawing AirBnB, actually all those gig economy apps, is the way to go. Especially if you are not American. Let's stop giving rich conservative american venture capitalist sway over our nations.

Are your suggesting vulture capitalism is a virus and we need a vaccine?

In case of the hotel industry, there's already a vaccine and it is called AirBnB.

[HisMajestyBOB]

I'm curious if this will have any impact on the healthcare debate in the US. I think there may be an increase in support for government healthcare here, but I don't think we will see any actual implementation, so we will just end up with a lot of dead and a lot of angry people.

[Tamas]

I'm curious if this will have any impact on the healthcare debate in the US. I think there may be an increase in support for government healthcare here, but I don't think we will see any actual implementation, so we will just end up with a lot of dead and a lot of angry people.

I am thinking, they way its going to go is first the big cities will be hit which are not very pro-Trump in general. So the GOP crowd won't care. But then of course their less populate areas will also be heavily hit, and because of the sequence of event they will be blaming the liberals for not controlling it in the cities.

I am hoping  it will make them turn toward a civilised healthcare system, but I am not expecting it.

[Josquius]

Jesus Christ, people.


FIrst of all the death of high street doesn't mean you can only shop online, alright.

And guess what, in the small town where my parents live, small grocery stores, a butcher's etc. are perfectly fine because THEY STILL MAKE SENSE. The distance from supermarkets is big enough that people are putting up with their premiums for daily shopping.

There's correlation between the death of stores and the rise of retards because if a village/town goes to the shitters then people who can earn money leave and the shops thus reduce in numbers, and all you have left are the elderly,  and the useless 'tards.

The notion that you need to have shops on the high street to socialise is, I am sorry, laughable. If people want to go there and socialise they don't HAVE to shop. If they don't want to socialise then having to attend expensive shops with a range of selection miniscule compared to supermarkets let alone the Internet will not change that.

The only bigger marketing BS than this high street QQ is the one justifying the taxi driver guilds as customer protection.

You're being too black and white on this.
Nobody is saying we have to subsidise all the shops and keep them open forever. We all recognise they're a dying breed as times are changing.
However, the transformation of the high streets from predominantly shopping areas towards being predominantly leisure areas is a slow and gradual one, it is happening, slowly slowly, but this transition heavily relies on the old slowly winding down as the new builds up. History has shown time and again that sudden change can have a major negative effect.
The high street is the core of the town because thats where the shops are. Remove the shops and you remove the footfall so cafes and leisure places suffer too. The theories behind anchor stores et al still hold. Slowly replace the old style shops with new facilities piece by piece however and you can maintain the town's health even as it transforms.

As the population becomes more and more digital high street shopping will continue to decline, this is inevitable, but we should make efforts to ensure this is as slow as possible so the idea of a town centre doesn't die along with it and the elderly and poor aren't left behind as society changes.

[garbon]

I'm wondering if I'm going to move to always having groceries delivered after I see the time and energy saved.

I don't think I'd ever been excited about groceries as I was at midnight last night snagging a delivery window on Amazon Fresh with most of the groceries supplied by Morrisons.

[garbon]

As the population becomes more and more digital high street shopping will continue to decline, this is inevitable, but we should make efforts to ensure this is as slow as possible so the idea of a town centre doesn't die along with it and the elderly and poor aren't left behind as society changes.

Unless the elderly and poor are assisted in affording/using the new technologies (in this instance online shopping), it seems like they'll still end up losing albeit drip by drop.

[Tonitrus]

I am one of those weirdos who actually enjoys going to grocery stores.

The future of delivery-only grocery distribution warehouses scares me.