The World Just Doesn’t End That Often

A Pandemic Missive

The most appreciated aspect of the apocalypse to materially relevant Western capitalists of the right now is the vertiginous efforts brands have undertaken to give away their material for free.

For a society that so rarely experiences the elusive free lunch, Americans have been treated in recent weeks to a bountiful, hypodermically delivered internet harvest.

It’s worth noting, though, that the altruism of corporate America in the “internet age” seems only to really circumscribe services. What about goods? In other words, those pesky physical things we actually need to eke out an existence—you know, Maslow and all of that. To be clear, I’m glad that those of us who have an abundance of time on our hands (that means you, my fellow Knowledge Worker) can now entertain ourselves endlessly. Even though, to be honest, we were managing that just fine before the end of the world as we knew it.

My point is that, in mid-April 2020, as the virus appears to have been wrangled—hopefully— from a public health perspective, it’s probably time to seriously look beyond the freebies.

But what’s simply terrifying is that the nominal decline in our economy over the past six weeks has been largely mirrored by a nominal response. Sure, a lot of us got checks deposited virtually. But a lot of us didn’t. More of us lost jobs. I shudder to envision an America at 30% unemployment. An America that, because we’ll probably never shake hands again, can no longer rely on the rain or shine industriousness that so typifies the vibrancy of the small businesses that comprise around ninety-nine percent of our economy.

This doesn’t mean that brands should suddenly become overnight what they’re not. It isn’t incumbent on Disney to save the world; their remit is to entertain it.

Hope is always important. It’s just that when we’re on such unsure footing, it helps to have someone leading who actually might, maybe, possibly, know the way.

In the meantime, I’m headed to Supreme.com—they’re selling box logo T-Shirts.