The natural consequence of our last 50+ years of ever increasing economic growth is the lifestyle we had until a couple of months ago. The push to improve econ

The natural consequence of our last 50+ years of ever increasing economic growth is the lifestyle we had until a couple of months ago. The push to improve economic output every year has as the effect that people have left very little time for themselves, that they have created smog hells in cities around the world. I would argue that this environment we created is the antidote, where productivity has not gone up based on what you expect from the amount of hours worked. People keep putting more effort in but the output is not moving much. I would expect that after some time of stabilizing (and articles like this show its already happening) that people will be more productive and be competitive with those that just keep chugging on. It is easy to see on an individual level: you can try to put in 80 hour weeks, but a competitor that gets plenty of sleep and is happy doing his job just might outcompete you anyway. I think the same can be seen on a larger scale, and probably with larger difference as well. An economy where people are able to work in clean air, with much less pressure and much less feeling of being a consumer will end up being more productive even though a lot of people are working from home. Because, remember, the main reason a lot of jobs are lost is not because productivity went down. It is because money is not spend. And money not spend is left available to be spend on other things. This will re-balance itself.