Economics and the Flu
"A Widespread pandemic could cause a huge detriment to the world's economy"
A forecasted pandemic of the Swine Flu could cause the world's economy to slump into the worst economic slump it has seen since the great depression. Experts expect the economy to contract by 7.5% this year.
The economy is already experiencing a tip to the side of a deflated economy, and one more unbalanced tip could cause that balance to become very weighted on one side. What if the H1N1 virus were to wipe out half the population of a specific country, then the expected output would again be out by another 3%.
Businesses would be out employers, and many of their investment projects will have to be put on hold. Consumers too would decrease severely so as to avoid going out to public places. If consumer shopping goes down, production goes down, an in turn the numbers of employees needed would greatly suffer as well. There will be no jobs to take and no jobs to make.
Tourism, which is a large contributor to the world's economy would take a huge plunge as well. No one will want to travel in fear of leaving home and contracting the virus from elsewhere.
