One paradox of the social distancing measure brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic is the implosion or collapse of all economic activities.
This, in turn, entails the adoption of a two-pronged strategy – invest in public health and, at the same time, invest in diversifying our global supply chains, making them less reliant on physically integrated processes as opposed to the physically fragmented ones. This way, Malaysia not only can mitigate the shortage of supply, as there are only a few major manufacturers in the country, but also manufacturing it with an eye for the world market which will bring much needed foreign exchange. These products are in a shortage everywhere.
Rather, it is the twin phenomenon of a dramatic fall in the existing production and consumption of goods and services that rely heavily on processes that require physical contact , combined with an equally dramatic rise in the production and consumption of goods and services that don’t involve such contacts .
This is because Covid-19 is the first pandemic to have struck a thoroughly integrated global economy. Most goods today are products of a global supply chain, where physical interactions in one location are connected to physical interactions elsewhere.Higher government spending, lower taxes, rock-bottom interest rates, and even printing money may keep people afloat in the short term, but these do not stimulate productive activity when people cannot work.