Forecasting a Different Pandemic.

Today I completed a tax return online for a self-employed motor mechanic. I’ve been doing it for some years on behalf of a couple of people, and so I’m familiar with the system. Today I was reminded of the cumbersome, overly complicated, and sometimes irrational way in which the process is designed. And there was another problem: today the Inland Revenue’s tax return program had glitches, adding difficulty and frustration to the irritations which have been increasingly evident ever since the online revolution got underway.

Coming on top of the troubles I’ve been experiencing lately with BT, EON, HSBC Bank and others, it’s led me to a near-certain conclusion: cracks are appearing everywhere in the systems by which the bureaucracies, the banks, and the corporate world expect us to toe their lines of control. Everything is broken or breaking, and I’m far from being the only one to say so.

And so I’m tempted to predict that the next pandemic to seep into the so-called developed world will be less easy to treat than Covid. It will be a growing raft of mental health issues as people struggle to make sense of how they’re expected to conduct their affairs. No doubt it will be noticed and reported on by the media, but will those in control understand the cause and do anything to heal it? I’m not optimistic.