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Off-Topic How privileged are we?

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JeffC

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I recently sold most of my equipment for far above recent market prices for used fitness equipment.

When I meet these fitness enthusiasts all I can think is how privileged we are to spend significant resources on a bunch of fake work when we are in the beginning stages of lifestyle and world changing history in the making.

I will be the ant. Not the grasshopper. I am a proud Pessimist, but I prefer Realist.

If my opinion offends you I would be interested in hearing your views on Pandemic/Greater Depression fitness culture.
 
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Without question, people who can afford discretionary spending in this environment are privileged.

I am just curious, @Geoff Chafe , what your attitude towards them is. Are they fools (grasshoppers)?

We hear frequent calls for those who are able to continue to support the local small businesses. Order takeout, and tip what you can. Keep paying tuition or dues to gyms/dojos or the like to help them make it through. Is this a bad idea? Is it time to simply let these things fail, because this may be the new normal?

There's no wrong answer, just curious what your mindset is.
 
I can afford some discretionary spending as the wife and are "essential" and therefore still working most of the time.

My grocery spending has increased some but a lot of that is stuff socked away. Not really hording, but keeping a 2 week supply of food and essentials.

I'm not sure we can say how this will turn out yet, but is a very good chance our currency will take a nosedive and items that can be bartered will increase in value. Fitness culture persists everywhere and in all times, and good exercise equipment always has value.

I'm taking a "wait and see", things are going to be very different for a few.
 
The language of essential worker vs non-essential worker seems marginally ok during short-term conditions such as extreme weather, but it's brutal during long-term events like this one. I don't call myself essential; I call myself lucky. I do not like categorizing large parts of the population as non-essential.
 
Ones view of the Pandemic is certainly regional and biased. Some will weather the storm far better than others.

In my region our economy has been crippled since the end of 2014. With modest recovery until China-Canada trade tensions, Federal-Provincial Govermnet opposition, capital flight, and eco-radicals held the market hostage for a month. Now economic shutdown and Russia-OPEC price war.

The economy was on its knees. Now we have our neck out. For many the blade will drop. Power grabs, erosion of freedom, taxes, debt, will probably be the easiest aspects.

@WhatWouldHulkDo Do I think those who overspend on fitness equipment are fools? No, I envy them. I was them

To think we are at least headed for a severe recession, or waves of recessions is wrong. Up until a week ago economists were projecting a U or V shaped economy. Now a deep and prolonged W is projected.

The true effect on CCP China is not yet know, but rest assured it is far worse than the official narrative.

Don’t even get me started on the effects of prolonged social isolation on my 3 years olds. Will they be known as Generation C?

I hope I am wrong because depression leads to armed conflict and wide spread suffering. In the West we certainly are privileged, but will we remaIn so?
 
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To think we are at least headed for a severe recession, or waves of recessions is wrong. Up until a week ago economists were projecting a U or V shaped economy. Now a deep and prolonged W is projected.

The true effect on CCP China is not yet know, but rest assured it is far worse than the official narrative.

I tend to agree. I don't think this is the new normal, but, much like the initial response to the social aspects of the disease, it appears to me that the economic mitigations are coming too slowly, and allowing things to get worse than they potentially needed to be.

A truly global pandemic is something that the modern economy really has never seen. We can talk projections all day, but in the end we're guessing. Until there is a way to directly address the pandemic (i.e. a vaccine), I have a hard time seeing how we get back to normal. I'm sitting in a conference call right now, listening to my VP discuss the grand plan to start rotating people back into the office in small groups. One of my employees just lost her sister to COVID. There's no chance in hell I'm going to ask her to stop working from home and rotate back into the office.

We're taking radical social action to combat this, and that's probably the right thing to do. It seems insane to me that we aren't taking radical economic action to match. To put in the terms of the thread - in my mind, the privileged need to be sharing the pain.

Don’t even get me started on the effects of prolonged social isolation on my 3 years olds. Will they be known as Generation C?

That's gotta be a hard age for this - old enough to understand that this isn't supposed to be normal, but not quite old enough to understand why its happening. My kids are 10 and 12, and they've held up OK... but I can tell that sometimes a little bit of hopelessness is wearing them both down.

For adults its easier to appreciate and draw strength from what we do have, rather than focus on what we're losing. It think it's harder for kids to do that.

Stay strong, sir.
 
I don’t share my thoughts with anyone. That is why I vented a bit.

My wife questions my decisions, but trusts me. I don’t tell her what I believe. I just tell her we need to reign in spending and I need to make as much money as possible while I still can.

I am far more worried about our children and finances than the virus.
 
I feel it's unhealthy and potentially dangerous to use the word "privilege" or "privileged" as a pejorative. A positive word has become a synonym for greedy, ignorant, or uncaring people.

We are all privileged to have woken up this morning, and to live and breathe right now... and envy for another's situation doesn't directly help much of anything at all.
 
Ones view of the Pandemic is certainly regional and biased. Some will weather the storm far better than others.

In my region our economy has been crippled since the end of 2014. With modest recovery until China-Canada trade tensions, Federal-Provincial Govermnet opposition, capital flight, and eco-radicals held the market hostage for a month. Now economic shutdown and Russia-OPEC price war.

The economy was on its knees. Now we have our neck out. For many the blade will drop. Power grabs, erosion of freedom, taxes, debt, will probably be the easiest aspects.

@WhatWouldHulkDo Do I think those who overspend on fitness equipment are fools? No, I envy them. I was them

To think we are at least headed for a severe recession, or waves of recessions is wrong. Up until a week ago economists were projecting a U or V shaped economy. Now a deep and prolonged W is projected.

The true effect on CCP China is not yet know, but rest assured it is far worse than the official narrative.

Don’t even get me started on the effects of prolonged social isolation on my 3 years olds. Will they be known as Generation C?

I hope I am wrong because depression leads to armed conflict and wide spread suffering. In the West we certainly are privileged, but will we remaIn so?


I think our kids will weather this OK if it ends somewhat by mid Summer. If it drags into next school year it will have a devastating effect on the economy as many parents who otherwise might be able to work in some capacity will be tied up impersonating trained educators.

Economically I feel this will hit N America and Europe far harder than China, Taiwan, SKorea, and it will effect our long term priviledged status. The domestic oil industry in NAmerica is staring down barrel of low price AND flatlined demand. SA and Russia are well positioned.

The amount of piled up, unpayed personal debt, and what the govt will spend to keep the economy moving are going to profoundly change some big dynamics. I don't see how the US with Federal ReserveDollars can survive this without the Fed buying outstanding debt and retiring it. All the outstanding private sector debt is going to be its own problem, and what of the derivatives market?

To say nothing of the massive drop in govt revenue for 2021. I don't see this easing back to normal anytime soon...
 
To get back to Pandemic Fitness Culture. A gym near me defied orders for non-essential businesses to close.

It was open to the public and they went so far as to conceal there activities with sound deadening and covered windows.

I see ads on Kijiji looking for anything and anywhere to exercise. I have seen quite a few looking for a home gym and a lockdown training partner.

The lengths we go.
 
Many people are doing it tough at the moment but I can't claim to be one of them. I'm still working and my wife is independently wealthy (meaning retired, with more cash than me) meaning that if I get stood down, as is possible, i will just rely on her for food, beer, roof over my head etc. Not everyone is at the same time of life or as fortunate as we are. People just need to do whatever they have to to get through this difficult period. It will pass. I am pessimistic about the prospects of long term change from something as fleeting as this virus. If I had to bet I would say by about this time next year COVID-19 will be nothing but a memory and a massive figure on the liabilities side of the ledger. There is more chance of the debt resulting in long term change than the virus. And I say this having seen people rebuild on flood plains, bushfire zones and the slopes of volcanoes.
 
I often think of how and why I am me, and how I effect my children. I have accepted who I am a number of years ago, and others opinions of me matters less and less as I got older, but it’s interesting to contemplate how we came to be.

 

If you were wondering about my pessimism of a recovery after Covid-19, this is why,

Like I said, Covid-19’s effect will certainly be regional.
 
"We" are not privileged. I am glad to be in a position where I can still work and support my family, but it is a position that I worked hard for over the years. I came from a poor background, but because I am a white male, I am assumed to be part of the Good Ol' Boys club.

The fitness culture of this pandemic is no different than it was pre-pandemic: those who are sufficiently motivated will find a way to stay fit, and those who are looking for excuses will find them. The cost of entry to physical fitness is time and effort, not currency.
 
"We" are not privileged. I am glad to be in a position where I can still work and support my family, but it is a position that I worked hard for over the years. I came from a poor background, but because I am a white male, I am assumed to be part of the Good Ol' Boys club.

The fitness culture of this pandemic is no different than it was pre-pandemic: those who are sufficiently motivated will find a way to stay fit, and those who are looking for excuses will find them. The cost of entry to physical fitness is time and effort, not currency.

I disagree. With gyms and fitness studios closed across the world closed and massive shortages of quality fitness equipment.

Fitness culture will forever be changed.

How many professionals will leave the industry? Though choice or necessity? The influencer bubble is bursting, income and opportunities are drying up.

How many who left the weight room will return? Are people going to be reluctant to return to there prepandemic form of exercise?

StrongFirst and others are, most likely, at the beginning of a long and bumpy road.
 
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