Good morning I<3Big Anime Tiddies,
You cannot "pause" industries for 18-36 months. That's so far beyond impossible I can't even think of a allegory for it. Jobs lost now aren't just never coming back, they're never going to exist again. Not in your life time or mine anyways.
I don't think there is any plan to stop everything for that long. We just have to pause for a few weeks to flatten the curve, buy some time. 65% of the population is getting this bug. We are simply trying to stretch that out so it doesn't happen all at once. Most people won't die. It has a low mortality rate. It's just really contagious, so we have to keep our distance from others as much as possible up front. After more and more people get the bug, social distancing won't work any more. Things will be brought back online.
I am guessing that after a region goes on total lock-down for a while, the logical thing to do is to begin bringing essential services back online first, while keeping everybody else on lock down. Then, gradually, over time more and more workers will be released to go back to work, all according to how essential their work is to society. I agree, there is no way we can survive if everything is stopped for a long period.
I just got back from the grocery store. I hit 'em up just after the opened. As I suspected, there must have been a line to get in at opening time. I timed my visit so that line would have a chance to file in and get their carts. I got my cart and went directly to the meat display. It was about 1/4 stocked. I was able to find everything I needed. Then I checked for eggs. No problem. Got eggs. I could have gotten several dozen, but I didn't want to horde. Then I went to the bread isle. Plenty of bread. Thinking I was lucky, I went to the paper products isle. Nothing there. Oh well. I got what I really needed. I am cure paper products will be in full supply soon enough. I can conserve what I've got and be fine for weeks.
Basically, it was just as I thought. A store full of food. Maybe I didn't get everything I wanted (no chicken) but there was plenty of food.
Next will be a trip to the liquor store. We'll see how that goes.