Your point is true for some, but I dispute 'all values of x'.
Post-pandemic, yes, some items from that page are going to return to pre-pandemic numbers, I'm sure - hangover, restaurant, ticket, etc.
But for people who've discovered that stuff they grow at home - from herbs on the balcony to tomatoes in the yard - taste much better, are unlikely to just forget that.
Similarly people discovering this year that they enjoy the process and flavours of cooking or baking bread are also unlikely to forget it all.
Ditto people who pay more attention to their health and work environment - dumbbell, standing desk.
Google search terms are likely to reach stasis, of course, as people who want this knowledge now have it, but that doesn't mean there won't be a shift in people's behaviours and activities.
> But for people who've discovered that stuff they grow at home - from herbs on the balcony to tomatoes in the yard - taste much better, are unlikely to just forget that.
That is, until everyone has to go back to working in offices etc, and they realise they don't have time to maintain a garden any more.
I expect there to be at least some long term effect. Some number of folks are probably going to switch to work from home semi permanently. Not having to spend all those hours commuting is bound to have some effect.
Not saying "not true for all values of x", I'm claiming "not worth reading for all values of x", because it's way too soon to make predictions about what will stick and what won't. I could imagine that _something_ will stick, I just don't think the Economist or anyone else is going to be any good at predicting what.
I don't know. I just listened to this great podcast [1] about victory gardens during WW1 and WW2. Many of them were set up all across the US, but after the war ended people pretty much abandoned them. Turns out growing food is hard work and most people don't want to do it, even as a supplement.
That said I'm definitely making it a goal to never buy green onions again - it's so easy to regrow them.
Understood, but I suspect some of that may be cultural (allotment gardens in the UK are extremely popular with lengthy waiting lists), and synchronised with the push in the USA during the 1940's and 1950's towards suburbanisation and consumerism.
My gut feel is that because there was already a popular trend to 'getting your fingers in the soil', as well as the slow food movement, that combined with the forced rethink of how we spend time, effort, and money, we will see some longer lasting effects.
Post-pandemic, yes, some items from that page are going to return to pre-pandemic numbers, I'm sure - hangover, restaurant, ticket, etc.
But for people who've discovered that stuff they grow at home - from herbs on the balcony to tomatoes in the yard - taste much better, are unlikely to just forget that.
Similarly people discovering this year that they enjoy the process and flavours of cooking or baking bread are also unlikely to forget it all.
Ditto people who pay more attention to their health and work environment - dumbbell, standing desk.
Google search terms are likely to reach stasis, of course, as people who want this knowledge now have it, but that doesn't mean there won't be a shift in people's behaviours and activities.