COVID-19 and the Future of Commerce, Cash and Capitalism

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Introduction

With the rising numbers of COVID-19 infections around the globe, the future of various sectors has become a paradox that is cracking the minds of many people. The Pandemic has had an enormous effect on the various aspects of the greater economy. In the cases of extreme infections, it has seen the closure of the different economic sectors, which has raised the question of what the Pandemic could mean for the future aspects of commerce, cash, and capitalism around the world. Over the past years, the world has transformed to become a capitalist society that is driven by a financial-economic system. However, this system has been broken by the Pandemic.

Discussion

A wide range of people views capitalism as a ‘pandemic’ on its own. For these reasons, economists such as Mariana Mazzucato describe that the COVID-19 Pandemic might be one that may solve the Capitalism problem. She believes that it may shine a beam of light into the economic and societal system in the world to expose the flaws in the capitalist society. However, other than the continuing infection rates around the globe, this perception may create more problems that there already are in the globe.

Currently, most of the nations have opened up a credit financial system on a system that is already broken by inflation and liquidity. This is a compromise, especially to the aspects of commerce, which may only be resolved by fixing the economic flaws of capitalism. According to a recent interview on this aspect of Dan Schulman, the CEO of PayPal, what capitalism needs is an upgrade, especially in commerce. Sooner or later, the world will learn to live with the Pandemic if a cure is not found. Therefore, to fix the loopholes and flaws that have been brought to light by the Pandemic, the government, companies, and organizations may need to cultivate commerce.

On the aspect of cash, the Pandemic may have a drastic change in the sense that most of the nations have advocated for cashless transactions. E-payment systems, debit and credit cards, along with other forms of digital currencies such as bitcoins, have been adopted in place of cash. This may remain to be the condition even if normalcy resumes after the Pandemic. However, on the brighter side, this would enhance the aspect of commerce, e-commerce to be specific, which would be one of the solutions to the flaws in the capitalist system.

Conclusion

Capitalism, being driven by the financial-economic systems, have had a wide range of flaws that are now in the light as a result of the Pandemic. However, the future of capitalism may only get worse due to the inflation, liquidity injection, and accumulation of credits from the financial sector. However, commerce, including e-commerce, may have a bright lead in the face of the Pandemic to fix or solve the flaws of capitalism. The future of cash might, however, be a dead end due to the adoption of online and e-payment systems, digital currencies, credit cards and debit cards that are currently on a high usage rate. This, however, may enhance the future of the e-commerce sector and the global commerce system at large.