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In killing off Republicans. 
Stupid and sad.
I agree that this is going to change things a lot more than any of us can realize right now.
I've been saying this for some time: Pretend it's the spring of 1939, you and I are good friends 
and we're planning a trip to Europe next year. We are so looking forward to it! We've been saving for a couple of years now, working extra jobs, and the like. We've begun making specific plans of where we'll go. Then September rolls around and war breaks out there. Oh, crap! We certainly won't be going next year, but we're optimistic that this silly war won't last long, ad we'll be able to go in 1941. Heck, we'll just save more money during this delay.
But the war isn't silly, and it goes on, and on, and doesn't finally end there until May, 1945. The soonest we'll take that long-postponed trip is 1946, possibly even a year or two later. And the Europe we finally see is vastly different from what we might have seen had we taken that trip in 1939.
Something similar is going to happen with Covid. There won't be the vast number of deaths (especially in proportion to the population) as happened in WWII, unless a much worse variant pops up that laughs at the current vaccines. But there are going to be lots of changes, some of which we couldn't begin to guess at. I do think that in this country, things like the infrastructure bill and raising of taxes on the wealthy will happen. Possibly later rather than sooner, but they will happen. Changes in work, schools, socializing will continue. Right now it's only the equivalent of 1941, and so we probably have not seen the worst, whatever that will be.
But this still won't be an extinction level event. It's the runaway climate change that will do that.
I hope you are right.
After the Black Death in Europe, 1348-1350, the population was so reduced that suddenly peasants actually had the power to say "NO!" to the previous exploitation. Serfdom disappeared. The serfs were no longer bound to the place where they'd been born, could move about freely, and could command decent wages.
Something similar is in the process of happening now. Many jobs are going to alter profoundly. Mostly for the better.
I'll offer a personal note. Back in the 1970s I was an airline ticket agent at National Airport in Washington, DC. I was my job. I essentially liked it. Well, what I really liked was the travel benefits, because the job itself could be incredibly difficult. Then, in 1975, I became a Docent at the Smithsonian, trained to give a highlights tour of the Natural History Museum. The training was fantastic, and a few months later I started taking classes at my local junior college. Here's the thing. By doing something that far outside my job, I quickly understood that I really was NOT my job. I was a person who did that work, and I had many interests, abilities, and talents outside the job.
That insight profoundly altered me. It actually made dealing with the hassles and difficulties of that job a lot easier, because now I had a certain perspective.
I think that something very similar is occurring to millions of people now. Yeah, work can be important but work to live, don't live to work.
