If you watched our show on why 2021 will be
a terrible year you might have got to the end of that and felt a happiness-sapping sense of
hopelessness, but don’t worry viewers, today we are going to make things right. You’re going to
hear about a lot of silver linings around a big, black cloud. Some bad things went down in 2020,
but that doesn’t have to mean 2021 will be another year from hell. In fact, we think things are going
to work out pretty well next year. Here’s how. That thing called Covid-19 has hung over us like
a storm that just won’t go away. Every time you turned on the TV or fired up the computer the
news was the same: sickness and death on repeat. We are hoping those days will soon be over.
We have every right to feel optimistic. As we write this, the news is telling us that the
American biotechnology firm called Moderna has a vaccine for Covid-19 and the preliminary results
after testing 30,000 people show it has a 94.5 percent efficacy rate. That was much better than
anyone expected this early in the game, with the U.S.’s leading infectious disease expert Anthony
Fauci calling the vaccine “stunningly impressive.” That’s music to the ears of anyone who’s currently
locked down and praying for this virus to go away. Ok, so getting large parts of populations
vaccinated is not an easy task at all. It will take time, but we believe that by the time
2021 rolls around there will be significantly less fear and worry around the world. In fact, we
are pretty sure that as Spring comes people are going to be out in the streets celebrating
as if a great war has been won and the winner is humanity. That’s all of us together, every
country, relieved and ready to build again. There are those that predicted another Great
Depression happening which doesn’t bode well for 2021, but there are also a lot of analysts talking
about V-shaped recoveries in many countries. This has become much more of a reality since those
vaccines became the news of the day. As for the economy, some people predict that people will
spend big once lockdown and social distancing restrictions have been lifted, but there are
cautious voices, too, who predict that people might now have a save-for-a-rainy-day mindset.
It’s true that once the Great Depression was over quite a lot of people lived for
years after as if one might come again. They stuck bundles of cash under the bed waiting
for the worst to happen. Nonetheless, we didn’t have another Great Depression and so we think the
bounce back from Covid-19 will be, err, bouncy. It’s guesswork if we ask when Covid will
finally end in terms of it killing large swathes of people, but even before the new vaccines
were being tested some experts predicted that normalcy would return to society in the Spring
of ’21. People are going to be eating out more, socializing more, generally
just enjoying their freedom. Just imagine the joy people will feel when all
those social restrictions have been lifted. We are going to go out on a limb here and say
that by May 2021 there is going to be a lot of happiness in the air and a lot of people being
very friendly to each other. Regular life will seem like a blessing after the horror of
2020. For a while you’re going to feel a natural high every day…and then as the year
passes you can go back to being grumpy. We think masses of people will receive
the vaccine in the Spring and Summer and by the time September is here, herd immunity
will be well on its way. The summer is going to be just great, possibly the best summer you’ve
ever had. As Bill Gates said in an interview, Covid won’t just completely disappear, but you can
bet in 2021 your life will return to normal again. Another thing is we have learned a lot of
valuable lessons. The vast majority of people who got Covid-19 came out of the other side in
one piece. That wasn’t everyone, unfortunately, but most people survived without having
any negative long-term health problems. One thing we know now is we should take
care of our bodies, so we have stronger constitutions to help us through times of
sickness. We believe that post-Covid there will be a lot more people in the world that
exercise and try to live a healthier lifestyle. We’ve had our warning now and we are not going
to ignore our health again. Trust us, gyms and parks are going to be packed full in 2021. We are
about to usher in a new normal of staying healthy. An article published in the British Medical
Journal in 2020 explained that doctors in some areas saw something strange happen in
2020- cases of flu amongst children were down significantly. One doctor said sure, kids
not mingling at school made a difference, but she also said people were much more serious
about personal hygiene. She thinks that this is part of the new normal: people just washing their
hands more and not sneezing into other people’s faces. Maybe Covid has made humanity cleaner.
With so much less activity in the world, the air got cleaner, too. In 2020, NASA satellites
showed that in many big cities in the world air pollution was dramatically reduced. Ok, so
when people have the freedom again to move around maybe that will go back to normal, but some
experts think not. One environmental economist at Stanford University predicted that this
cleaner air will save thousands of lives. Maybe when people understand this positive
effect, they will be a lot more responsible about burning oil. He said in this respect
Covid has taught us to think about the future. Now let’s talk about goodwill.
You might not know this, but during the crisis, a lot of very good people have been doing good
things for others. In the UK, the government said it needed National Health Service volunteers. The
number of people that said they’d like to help was more than 750,000. In lots of countries, people
volunteered to go shopping for those who couldn’t get out. We saw singing from balconies. We saw
communities coming together. This can only be good for the future. You and your neighbors might
be closer than you’ve ever been before. It’s time to light up the BBQ in 2021 and invite all those
helpful neighbors around for a beer and a burger. As for inside the house, ok so some folks were
driven up the wall by their families during lockdowns, but many people reported getting closer
to their families. When the virus is finally gone, maybe you’ll find you have a better relationship
with all those around you. Not only that, many people said during lockdown they learned
to cook better. Others got into gardening and some folks spent time fixing up their house.
If anything, your house is going to be a better place to live in 2021. In 2020, we struggled but
we learned to get along. In 2021, we will see the fruits of our understanding and kindness.
As for work, there was a hell of a lot of bad news in 2020. Lots of people lost their
job during the pandemic. Nonetheless, some people were able to carry on working at home.
Remote work will only become more popular in 2021. Maybe some of you like going to the office, but it
can also get very expensive paying for gasoline or public transport. On top of that, there are those
commuting hours in the morning that you’d rather spend in bed. Fewer cars on the streets also mean
less pollution, so it’s a win-win for everyone. We found reports that told us during the pandemic
a lot of people started learning new skills so they could work from home. Forbes called this
new trend “more than fleeting”, explaining that the number of people Googling phrases such as
“free online course” and “online courses” has never been so high in the history of the Internet.
People are not lying down and accepting defeat. In 2020, they got online and started learning
new things. In 2021, we imagine there will be a lot of people out there earning cash from
their new skills. In the UK, one survey found that a whopping 24 percent of respondents
were currently learning something new online. One guy that Forbes interviewed said he
learned website design and development and it helped him to launch a second company.
Not everyone locked down spent all their time watching Netflix and disaster news. From what
we can see, lockdown helped a lot of people. The “World Economic Forum 2018 Future of Jobs
Report” told us 54 percent of all employees would need new skills by 2022. Well, it couldn’t have
predicted that many of those people were locked down in 2020 and they learned those skills.
Tech companies have also come up with new apps to help people work remotely and stay connected
online. These tools are here to stay and will only get better in 2021. What this also means of course
is that next year you might find yourself applying for a job in a city or town far from where you
live. Just look online at the moment and look at who’s hiring for remote positions. It’s very
possible right now to work in expensive New York and live in a small community on the other side of
the country. Some companies have been forced to do this but they’ve found that it actually works.
It’s likely that a lot of companies won’t go back to how they did things pre-pandemic.
The world, people, is now your oyster. Some people have said that this will have
another benefit for many people. That is, if businesses are no longer using large office
spaces then property prices around those spaces might come down. High-paid employees often drive
up prices when they move into town, but that will become less of a problem in the coming years.
At the same time, if students spend less time on campus perhaps educational institutions
won’t have to spend as much on infrastructure. There’s a good chance that formal online
learning will bring the cost of education down. And what if you don’t feel like staying in
your country? Well, there are a growing number of people in the world today that call themselves
digital nomads. In the past, the option of working in another country might have been alien to you,
but right now it’s more of a possibility. Not only will 2021 be the year when we see more remote
workers than ever before, but we expect more of those workers to work and travel at the same time.
You might not have seen this, but quite a few countries now offer long-term visas for remote
workers. One of the best things is some of those countries don’t have a high cost of living. Costa
Rica has such a visa, although you’ll have to show you earn at least $2,500 a month. Portugal and
Mexico both make it fairly easy for someone to stay awhile and work, and Croatia is in the
process of creating a new digital nomad visa. Imagine spending next year on a beach in a foreign
country using your newly learned skills to support yourself. This doesn’t have to be a dream, it’s
more possible than ever, well, once borders open, which we think they will next year.
Part of the new normal is sustainable travel, which includes people staying longer at the places
they visit. A lot of people are already planning, too. In August of 2020, the website Skyscanner
said it was seeing a 368 percent increase in searches. Other surveys showed that lots
of people were interested in traveling as 2020 crawled along, and many of those
people had the first few months of 2021 in mind for a leaving date. That’s you, on
vacation, in 2021. That’s not so bad, is it? Then there are all the activities you missed that
are more than likely all coming back. You’ll be able to go see a movie at a theater again. You’ll
be able to go watch your favorite sports team in a stadium. Festivals and concerts should come back,
as should street festivals. Just imagine how good they will feel after being banned for so long.
Even a Justin Beiber concert will feel divine. June 2d, San Diego, mark it in your calendar.
2020 has been a great big wart on the history of mankind, but let’s be glad that
right now most of the world isn’t at war. Let’s remember that we’ve come a
long way in terms of how we treat each other. Economic inequality is still a big problem, but
a century ago things were much worse. You might now be thinking about learning a digital skill and
moving to a European country with amazing beaches when a century ago if you weren’t born into
the right family your options were pretty dire. So, there you go. In 2021 you might feel closer
to your family. You might live in a world that cares more than ever about hygiene, health, and
fitness. You might live in communities that are tighter than ever before. You might have learned
new skills and are using them in 2021 to earn a living in a beautiful foreign country. Your
skies might be cleaner, and your roads might be less congested. What’s not to like about 2021?
And don’t forget the big news we told you in the other, less optimistic, 2021 show, Keeping Up
With The Kardashians will at last have its final season. What an amazing year it’s going to be.
Now you should hear how we predicted 2020, in, “Why 2020 Will Be The Best Year
Ever.” Or, have a look at this...
