The Tech Worker's Pandemic Advantage

This economy’s income inequality is well documented. The pandemic has begun to accelerate the widening of this gap. Those who are able to work
during a lockdown are HEAVILY advantaged. Now that it appears the United States has squandered the benefits of a lockdown, one has to accept the fact there will be more lockdowns.

Remote working was a small minority before the pandemic. This is no longer the case. In fact, remote workers may be in the majority during serious lockdowns. However, they are no longer paying for dry cleaning or eating lunches with colleagues while they work. They are still making the same amount of money but no longer paying for a long commute or all the other expenses related to working outside one’s home.

The remote tech worker’s salary did not go down but their cost of living
probably did decrease. By now many of them are looking at the last
hundred days and realizing their bank accounts are little bit fatter. Many of these people were also making too much money to even get the full stimulus check but they did not care. Their bank accounts have now swollen well past a measly stimulus check from the government.

Those on the privileged side of the remote work gap are experiencing deflation of costs and inflation of income. It is a perfect storm for the tech worker. Their cost of living in general is falling. Deflation is already here for the tech worker even while they continue to bring in money. Salary inflation for the tech worker is happening as I write.

People are beginning to notice that a pandemic puts a serious load on production. There surely has to be increased production costs throughout the economy and therefore increased inflation but where is it? Everyone is realizing the Fed’s equations are not measuring inflation correctly. It is becoming very clear the inflation is already occurring in the new preferred currency, stocks. Preferred among the new preferred currency, the tech stocks are really becoming especially expensive.

The pandemic is surely making food costs go up. People NEED food so it is the type of inflation which people REALLY feel. If you are sitting there waiting for the next stimulus check, you really notice when a chunk of cheese goes up by 25% over a few weeks. If you are sitting in your home office making the exact same salary you had before but no longer have the load of a commute or lunches etc. well you barely notice the price of cheese.

This is truly a new economy. When you couple it with two completely
different economic realities where the poorer half is experiencing
crippling inflation while the richer get richer through a deflationary
cycle built on the backs of the poorer, you are in new territory. The
tech worker can afford to have EVERYTHING delivered, they love the fact gas prices are lower because delivery costs are lower.