U.S. Labor Department allows unemployment benefits for coronavirus
If COVID-19 digs in deep in the US then there is going to be a transformational change in how US citizens think about work, travel, entertainment, security, and the relationship between US citizens and their government.  All of these aspects are intertwined:<p>Work: More people will work more time from home and many firms will switch to virtually full time remote with limited physical gathering.  This will decrease the cost of office rents and alter the work&#x2F;life balance.  It will affect wages because people can live outside of city centers and still work so companies will pay less.  We may be on the cusp of US government guaranteed sick leave.<p>Travel: People will, for the short term, do less travel for pleasure, but the big impact, long term, business trips will decrease.  More and more business meetings will be replaced with voice and video conferencing.  There was no big driver other than some cost reduction here, but now safety and security will be the big drivers here.  Global pandemic concerns (prevention, containment) will complicate travel to varying degrees, and in a way that most US citizens aren&#x27;t used to - it will affect interstate travel, not just trans-national travel.<p>Entertainment: Many of the sports that have been deferred or canceled will likely be replaced with other forms of entertainment that can be viewed on television or the Internet.  Fewer people will go to live performances, both because they can&#x27;t (cancelled by the government) and reluctant to after COVID clears.  This will affect service workers - where most of the lesser skilled jobs have been created in the last three decades.<p>Security: Security will no longer be seen as just a physical access control concern.  Business has been preparing over the last two decades for the eventuality of global pandemic - now they can put those plans into action, and the impacts of them will cascade into personal lives.  US citizens will be demanding more from their government in disaster preparedness on pandemics - it will affect travel.<p>All of these tie into how US citizens see their relationship with their government, and what they demand from it.