No safety net

Salaries haven't gone up in years. Inflation is a concept we have forgotten. Growth, as it existed for generations is over.

There's a lot of talk at the moment about why businesses are unable to see out the Corona crisis. To me it's obvious: in a zero growth economy, the only way to grow your business and your slice of the pie is to take market share from others. Given that consumers don't have any more to spend, the most likely way to grab their attention is to promise the same quality as the competition at lower prices. How do you do that? You live frugally, you cut costs, slash benefits for employees and contracted workers and you hope that when the market eventually turns, you'll have a market with money to spend. In the meantime you make the barest minimum of profit, or even accept that you'll be making a loss, all in the pursuit of market share.

From my ill-informed perspective, this is just as likely to happen in the tech world with businesses like Uber, as in the real world with clothing brands like ASOS or airlines like Virgin. Money has been so cheap for so long that having a treasure chest to delve into when times are hard, rather than putting every penny into gaining market share or inflating stock prices, has been plain stupid.

So of course businesses are failing. No one - individuals or businesses - has two pennies to rub together. Cash flow is king and with cash flow having ground to a halt, we're all fucked.