Returning to posting after a COVID-chaos induced break. For Stockholm Syndrome to emerge the hostage has to be believe that their captor has the power of life and death over them. Our employers don’t threaten us with physical death, however they do hold our economic lives in their hands – and the fear of financial death can be almost as great as the real thing.
Each year the Federal Reserve carries out a study on the economic well being of American households – and the results show just how dependent many people are on getting their next paycheque. 47% of people said that they didn’t have the spare money to cope with an emergency $400 bill – around half of these people thought that they would be able to meet it by borrowing from friends or putting it on a credit card. 14% of people surveyed, however, said that they would simply have no way of paying it, and a further 10% said that they would have to sell something to make the payment.
If you had been in any doubt about the strength of the fear of economic death, then (sadly) the COVID pandemic has helped demonstrate it. Around the world there are stories of workers who are having to risk their lives, and the lives of their loved ones, in order to return to work. Because not returning to work would lead to financial ruin.