The Economist - USA (2020-03-21)

14 The EconomistMarch 21st 2020

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Letters

A world turned upside down

Schumpeter (March 7th) con-

nected the coronavirus crisis to

the lesson of “resilience and

adaptation” offered by the

strike on the London

Underground in February 2014.

Shaun Larcom, Ferdinand

Rauch and I analysed the strike

and found that the partial

closure of the network forced

many commuters to experi-

ment with new routes. For

many this resulted in shorter

travel times; they continued to

use the new routes after the

strike, thus generating a

lasting benefit.

The current global experi-

ment with alternative work

arrangements (less business

travel, increased teleworking)

might also bring long-term

gains to businesses. There is

another benefit. The covid-

crisis has brought about mass-

education on hygiene. School-

children are being taught how

to sneeze responsibly, touch-

ing one’s face is becoming

frowned upon, and proper

handwashing techniques are

enjoying their 15 minutes of

fame. Although covid-19 might

unfortunately be here to stay, it

may also change social norms

(elbow bumps instead of hand-

shakes) and improve hygiene

habits. If those changes stick,

we may see fewer cases of flu

and other infectious diseases.

Going forward, this could

improve health outcomes and

lower associated costs.

Joseph Schumpeter taught

us to embrace disruption.

Although the covid-19 crisis is

making this very challenging,

at the moment it is preferable

to embracing people.

tim willems

Washington, DC

Another lasting effect may be

the reinvention of the office.

Schumpeter noted that firms

may now find it is better to

encourage remote working,

given how inefficiently office

space is used. Big British and

American companies pay on

average $5,000 per employee

in annual rental costs, though

just half the desks are used

during working hours. The

potential benefit to companies

is clear. Yet it is less clear

whether employees would

share equally in those benefits.

It may be prudent, from the

point of view of employees’

wellbeing, to reflect before

implementing long-term

remote-working policies.

Feeling part of a shared

institutional culture can be

meaningful and motivating.

Flexible working may cut

commuting times and improve

the work-life balance, but

working remotely reduces the

valuable face-to-face connec-

tion between employee, col-

leagues and company. It would

be a shame if flexible working

were weaponised against

employees for the sake of

saving on office costs.

patrick kelly

Chief executive

Mizen Group

New York

Working from home could

result in staff forking out

thousands in extra costs. An

office employee who works a

40-hour-week for, say, 46

weeks a year will spend an

extra 1,840 hours at home.

Think of the additional cost for

heating and lighting a house

that is otherwise vacant during

the day, not to mention pow-

ering a computer during that

time and running a printer

(ink, paper). Firms also provide

extensive itsupport. What

happens if your personal com-

puter breaks down? Is that a

company cost or individual

cost? Then there are the small

items such as stationery, coffee

and, dare I say it, toilet paper

that are provided at the office.

margaret o’brian

London

The problem with China’s

success in using surveillance

methods such as facial recog-

nition and colour codes to

tame covid-19 is that this could

legitimise the extensive use of

profiling tools (“Code red”,

February 29th). One can easily

imagine how massive surveil-

lance and limitations to funda-

mental rights like privacy

could become the new norm.

Desperate times call for des-

perate measures, but democ-

racies face the dilemma of

solvingseriousproblemsand

atthesametimeprotecting

privacy,covid-19ornot.

asbjornammitzbollflugge

phdfellow

DepartmentofComputer

Science

UniversityofCopenhagen

Central-bankstaff

I readyourshortpiecenoting

thehighstaffingnumbersat

Europeancentralbanks

(“Labourhoarding”,February

22nd).Pleaseconsiderthat

apartfromthecorefunctions

relatedtomonetarypolicy,

banknotesandcurrency

management,thesizeof

centralbanksvariesdepending

whethera singleinstitution

alsohandlescoinage,printing,

payment-systemsupervision,

public-debtmanagement,

economicsurveys,statistical

collection,bankingresolution,

andthesupervisionofbank-

ing,insuranceandmarkets.

Thenthereisfinancial

consumerprotectionandthe

dutiesrelatedtonewchal-

lenges,likefintech.

Forinstance,whencompar-

ingstaffinglevelsatmost

Europeancentralbankswith

theFederalReserve,you

shouldaddstaffatthefdic,

occ,sec,ncua,naic,and

others,andoftheregulatory

authoritiesineachstate.Allin

all,thisraisesthecentral-bank

staffperinhabitantintheeu

andAmericatothesamelevel.

thierrydesanois

President

StandingCommitteeofEuro-

peanCentralBanksUnions

Paris

Judges in Hong Kong

The consequences of Boris

Johnson restricting the power

and independence of the judi-

ciary in Britain may be more

far-reaching than the erosion

of a safeguard against

unchecked executive power

(“Boris v the judges”, February

22nd). The principle of judicial

independence in Britain

underpins the legal systems of

some former British colonies,

in which authoritarianism is

more appropriately described

as a feature rather than a ten-

dency. The weakening of judi-

cial independence in Britain

may thus have a knock-on

effect of undermining judicial

independence in other places.

For Hong Kong, the recent

appointment of the heavy-

handed Xia Baolong as director

of the Hong Kong-affairs office

signals Beijing’s tightening

grip on the city’s administra-

tion. A decline in Britain’s

judicial independence may

stoke concerns of opportunis-

tic attempts by Beijing to di-

minish the power of Hong

Kong’s judiciary. Even though

judicial independence requires

judges to be partial only to the

law, Beijing expressed in a

white paper published in 2014

that it is a basic political

requirement that judges in

Hong Kong be patriotic. When

Baroness Hale was appointed

to the city’s Court of Final

Appeal in 2018, it came as no

surprise that pro-Beijing law-

makers voiced concern about

her handling cases in which

national interests may be at

stake. If Mr Johnson has his

way, it may spell an unprece-

dented challenge to Hong

Kong’s independent judiciary.

justin bong-kwan

Barrister-at-law

Hong Kong

Digital plurality

Kudos to The Economistfor

sticking to using data as a

plural (“Data, data every-

where”, February 29th).

Although I don’t understand

why there is a grammatical

quarrel over this, I have found

myself for years having to

correct the young scientists

I’ve mentored. While we’re on

the topic, bacteria and sera are

also plurals, the singular forms

being bacterium and serum

(also media/medium, in con-

texts other than the media

world The Economistinhabits).

george cross

New York