Yeah. This pandemic is a problem. On many levels. First from national security stand point. We’ve revealed an exceedingly troubling vulnerability to biological terrorism. Secondly, a major weakness of consumer driven capitalism has been highlighted.
We might need more government directed economic decision making for strategic security. Furthermore, we might need a basic income and nationalized medicine. Unfortunately, the character of our so-called leadership/political class is far too amoral and opportunistic to give them those powers.
That’s a short-term solution, but we could have done more - and can do more - in the future to limit the economic damage in situations like this.
It’s wrong for our policymakers - and frankly us as a society - to deny the accountability for allowing the pandemic and its result economic carnage. Neither were totally preventable, but the degree of disruption clearly were. And because the two largest and most influential nations had some of the worst responses to this disease, we may be taking the rest of the world down with us despite the fact that they did many more things right.
Obviously, we need to understand the economic value of investing in a robust public health system and a healthcare system that serves all people across all socioeconomic strata. We cannot untangle the healthcare system and the economic system - they are inextricably tied to each other.
But economically, we’re seeing now that while our economy was a state-of-the-art economic machine in terms of efficiency, it’s a disaster in terms of promoting the common weal. American household wealth has become a slave to just-in-time production and efficiency, creating an economic house of cards in which those at the top engorge themselves on total economic productivity while everyone else under them, to progressively increasing degrees, are running on a treadmill to keep our apartment lights on.
Look at what has happened to this “just-in-time” economy. It’s now the up-in-smoke economy. Mind you, someone is going to get rich. Economic activity never stops. But it stops for millions and millions of people. What people reading this don’t understand quite yet - because they look outside and still see cars going somewhere - is that the infantrymen and women in our economy get it first: the Uber drivers, the restaurant employees, the retail employees - they die first. But pretty soon, it’s a game of “Who’s next in the economic meat grinder.”
Take a look at retailers, with new ones every day filing for bankruptcy. Or hell, take a look at Google, which just cancelled thousands of independent work contracts. Pretty soon, even the rich boys are going to start searching under the couch or in those blue jeans pockets for those extra nickels.