'the establishment felt the earth crumble beneath its feet (it saw the triumph of lies that weren’t its own)'

 'average pay seems to be up but only because so many low-paid jobs are being lost and thus no longer counted...' (david blanchflower, the guardian, 23rd december 2020)

of course this will have social effects in the production of mobs. look at brexit, look at MAGA (a side of the anti-globalisation coin), expect this kind of disruption to continue, mobilised by the kind of lies/ wishful thinking that argues that in a globalised economy the jobs can be brought back home (yes they can, but only at the loss of overall economic efficiency, there then begins a scramble for what value remains, one in which the working class are likely to be the losers). 

and just because something is proposed (or accepted) by a section of the ruling class does not mean they can actually deliver it. 

of course other low paid jobs will come not to fill the void but in addition to the well paid jobs already lost. capitalism's motor (the pursuit of profit) forces it to replace adequately paid jobs (ones that enable the worker to reproduce his labour value and turn up for work again on a monday morning) with low paid jobs (that do not). it must hack at its own roots and social reproduction in search of more profit. 

profits are in any event so low. the rich pull up the drawbridge and retire to their castles while their investments return paltry returns. it's not capitalist investment but wealth management. 

the virus inaugurates an era of schumpeterian destruction - of commercial property, of sandwich shops and transport infrastructures, the tech that has been there to enable you to work from home for several decades is finally liberated to enable exactly that.  for years horsemouth has argued he needed to be there (and now it seems he doesn't). there may be productivity losses (but there are also direct cost savings). will there really be commuters demanding to be allowed to work from the office again? (horsemouth doubts it). 

to get us out of the post brexit/ covid crisis the government will simultaneously propose austerity and infrastructure investment (state subsidy to big firms) - but where, given the small highly efficient teams model of entrepreneurial capitalism can this state subsidy be deployed, government ideology around capitalism acts as a barrier to any concrete investment (especially if that investment is actually in concrete). 

we are back with buccaneer capitalists of monty python's corporate raiders sketch. we are on the stone raft of jose saramago (but a british remake), we have detached ourselves from europe and are sailing the seas of the world in pursuit of our destiny. horsemouth's friend ray appears in an advert encouraging business people to learn what they need to do for january 1st (he was a stone remainer like horsemouth is, like most of his friends are, but work is work). 

the dice are tumbling. who knows where we will end up.