Years ago, possibly on the recommendation of @sbisson and @marypcbuk , I read Kim Stanley Robinson's MARS trilogy. I loved it, and tried to persuade @damiankahya that anarcho-communism was the ultimate political framework; the loose, federated Martian states...

...operating within strict, functional Utilitarian constraints. After all, Mars is a hostile environment and for a human society to function there, everyone would likely need to contribute in some real and practical way to the upkeep

I've been thinking about that again recently. For fairly obvious reasons, but specifically 1/ that our external environment has become notably dangerous of late and 2/ that the state has imposed fairly utilitarian controls and occasionally taken the same principles.

If we are now not just in the era of THIS pandemic but in an era of evolving and increasingly dangerous pandemic phenomenon (Covid-19 is not so far behind MERS, SARS, and even Ebola)... then are the conditions on Earth changing? In a pandemic context, do our values shift?

The majority of the narrative is that this is just another societal and economic phenomenon. Sure, a big one. Unprecedented seems to be the word of the day. But its astonishing to me how, three and a bit months into this, there's limited paths 'back' to where we were.

After all, whether through herd immunity (NOPE), global immunisation (Crikey), or complex tech contract tracking that warns us off infected zones (Dystopian, natch), there isn't a clear path back to where we started. There's a new place - it's not where we started.

So let's think about our new era. Let's assume that social distancing becomes not an occasional thing but systemic. That epidemics are an annual - or even multi-times-a-year phenomenon. The handwashing regimen becomes enforced indefinitely. NHS staff remain a critical resource.

In this world, the state (every state) remains a major force. Entire industries are unable to rebuild themselves as they were. But there are many more demands for staff in food & medical distribution and healthcare. Traditional capitalism - built on economic growth - dies.

After all, it must do. Unless we develop anti-viral technologies bordering on panaceas, or some other near-magical nano-technological evolution to defend the human body from viral infection, these externalities will force a reassessment of our way of life.

So, we have a state, imposing utilitarian ideals - borne of necessity. We have private industry focussed around very specific societal goals and ambitions. We have many, many more people employed by the state, though perhaps a broad mix of federal and regional authority.

And given there's no hope of every nation paying off the debt its incurring to mitigate the economic debt its incurring to stem the tide of this pandemic within the current paradigm, I'd really like an economist to speculate on what alternatives there are?

I mean, what happens if we forgive all debt relating to Covid-19 and other epidemics just like that? What would happen? We've spent a third of the UK's mortgage debt already. What if we just gave everyone housing? What would that do to our economy? Our society?

I appreciate there's some madcap speculation here. I can't shake the feeling that this *isn't* an economic adjustment we're seeing here but a moment before a transition in the way we operate as a society.

But I'm not an expert. This is the science/sci-fi geek in me. WDYT?