Following the emergence of COVID-19, there has been an increasing demand for government and businesses to form a ‘new social contract’. This would confront the current economic hardships, and evenly distribute the challenges produced by a presently volatile economy. Due to the expected scale of a global economic stimulus, governments, businesses and investors are presented with a unique opportunity to introduce and incorporate the relevance of human rights and climate responsibility to the modern business model. This change may have the power to alter the trajectory of our present-day economy.

Differing social classes have experienced the impacts of COVID-19 with drastically different results. Those who are not privy to the same resources as the upper class suffer financially and experience great loss in quality of life and fiscal opportunities. A ‘new social contract’ would facilitate the needs of the lower class and allow those with fewer budgetary means to gain economic representation.