Post-Pandemic Predictions: 2022

Note: This idea came my way many weeks ago from a subscriber who prefers to remain nameless. But like any writer worth his salt, I’m stealing borrowing the idea. 

In 2022, a new word will be firmly entrenched in the English language: Chinaphobic. The word will be used extensively in the political arena and on social media to identify and shame people and companies that oppose investing in China and moving manufacturing from the West to China. Chinaphobes are:

• Utterly insensitive to the mental anguish of the Chinese people due to the unfair, racist criticism of their country during and immediately following the Pandemic of 2020.
• Murderously intent on destroying the Chinese economy and wellbeing of Chinese citizens by draining the country of jobs and trade.
• Racist in their insistence on manufacturing products within their own borders.
• Idiots in their inability to recognize the greatness of a global economy without borders.

To signal their virtue, people will put pressure on companies to open or reopen production in China. They will attack individuals who are reluctant to buy products made in China. Companies will enhance their branding by making a show of creating thousands of new jobs in China.

Mainstream news outlets will flood the market with images of Chinese people living in squalor. They will not show images of Americans and Europeans living in squalor, people still trying to claw their way out of the depression still very much going on in the West. Governments will institute new laws requiring companies to do a certain minimum amount of business with China, for retailers to devote a certain minimum amount of shelf space for Chinese products, etc. Governments will monitor consumer purchases: Individuals not buying a certain minimum amount of Chinese products will be subject to tax penalties and fines.

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The only part of this prediction that’s shaky is the assumption the pandemic and lockdown will be over by 2022. The rest of it is worth putting money on. Why? Because it is the exact opposite of what should happen — our political method of operation for the last several decades.

It’s an upside-down world. Time now to decide whether to stand on your head or your own two feet.