What I see happening (and did not explain well) is that the food (and potable water) supply is under pressure from population and climate change. The recent migrant crises in various parts of the world are either because there is not enough food for the poor or because conflicts (over control of land, and hence food) have driven people off their lands. They are not going to go away because the economic system does not have a reliable system for dealing with them. The pandemic merely amplifies the problems.ORIGINAL: witpqs
On your points 1 and 2:
1. The global population is growing at a greatly decelerating rate. It has been found conclusively that as a country's standard of living increases its birth rate decreases. The very large improvements in people's standard's of living around the world has dissolved the specter of global overpopulation as projections show the world's population leveling off far below what is believed to be the planet's carrying capacity.
2. The number of people around the world who live below the poverty line has vastly decreased in recent decades. That is according to the UN. Continuing progress has been evident and not slowed down. The current economic effects of the pandemic obviously are up in the air.
Economic disparity has not been growing exponentially. If you are referring to the presence of billionaires among us, the truth has always been that some humans have more than others. Governments/economies such as communism, etc have always had the very same and merely pretended otherwise, their real characteristic being that they oppress and economically hold down the vast majority of people. They do not limit or eliminate economic disparity, but they do hold down nearly everybody economically. That's not better.
So the one clear consequence is that starving people will not sit quietly when told to stay where they are and starve/die of disease, etc. To a certain extent that will occur with refugees within our countries who will move to what they perceive is a safer area. We saw that with New Yorkers fleeing the city to Long Island and upstate towns when they realized the virus was going to spread rapidly.
If this disease does not go away in a few months we may have a ping-pong transmission as people move around for jobs or safety. If more people had savings they could fall back on, they could stay in place longer. It's the reduction of the middle class that bothered me more than the existence of billionaires. Read again RFalvo's post about Italy having very rich people and poor people and not much in between. The implications mean great social instability is looming.
; Julia Child
