system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why did the economic fallout from the 1918-1919 Spanish influenza pandemic not cause Depression-level economic devastation?

Right now, the trends and data indicate that Depression-level economic fallout from the covid-19 pandemic is a real possibility. The last time we saw a pandemic of this level was the Spanish flu in 1918-1919. But why did the influenza back then not devastate the economy like we are seeing now? Cities implemented social distancing nearly 100 years ago as well. So why did this not result in 20%+ unemployment rate and cratering of stocks?
gpt
The economy looked very different in 1918. Our modern economy has a much larger share of consumer driven activity, which is directly impacted by social distancing. 1918 had not yet mechanized nearly as much, farming was a much larger share of the economy, where social distancing has less impact on productivity.