Canadan Prime Minister Justin Trudeau raised eyebrows recently in a video when he talked about the COVID outbreak and the potential he sees for the world “post-outbreak.”
“This pandemic has provided an opportunity for a reset,” Trudeau said. “This is our chance to accelerate our pre-pandemic efforts to reimagine economic systems that actually address global challenges like extreme poverty, inequality, and climate change.”
In June, Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, wrote a blog post that laid out his dream of the “Great Reset” of capitalism. Echoing Gerald Celente’s forecast of the “Greatest Depression,” Schwab warned that the global economy may be headed to its worst depression since the 1930s.
Schwab wrote, “One silver lining of the pandemic is that it has shown how quickly we can make radical changes to our lifestyles. Almost instantly, the crisis forced businesses and individuals to abandon practices long claimed to be essential, from frequent air travel to working in an office.”
He wrote that the agenda would have three parts and focus on a “fairer outcome” in the markets, a focus on equality and sustainability, and use the “innovations of the Fourth Industrial Revolution to support the public good.”
Nicole Grant, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of MLK Labor Council, an affiliate of the AFL-CIO Federation of Labor Unions, told the Seattle Times in May she believed the coronavirus will play a major role in changing society. Ms. Grant said,
“I think the stay-at-home order has gone on for so long, with people living under a drastically different set of rules, that there’s a chance for a real reset, a reboot. The inertia for the old ways of doing things is gone. We get to decide for ourselves now – as a people, as a country – how we want things to be.”
TREND FORECAST: Just as the great masses have obediently followed the orders of their masters to give up Liberty, Life, Joy and Beauty – masking up, socially distancing, sheltering in place, getting tested, and soon to be mandatorily vaccinated – so, too, will they accept the Great Reset, which is already setting in.
As we have noted, when the lockdowns were issued, multinationals, big fast food, Amazon, and large chain-store operators were considered “essential” and allowed to do business, while mom and pops/small businesses were forced to close.
Also, the Bigs are getting bigger as private equity groups gobble up businesses going bust.
Thus, in the Great Reset, the Bigs will be the masters of the new universe.
TRENDPOST: Dan Kelly, President of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, was quoted in the Winnipeg Free Press yesterday saying the outcome of the government’s lockdown is “creating an unfair playing field. The trend we see is larger retailers and big box stores are remaining open, while smaller independent stores are closed.”
Kelly said local bookstores, for example, had to shut down but it was OK for shoppers to go to Walmart and Costco to buy books. He also noted, “The independent flower shop is fully closed but you can buy fresh flowers at the grocery store.”