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Search Results for: Coronavirus COVID-19 Capitalism  – Page 5

Capitalism – The Cause Of COVID-19 Deaths

June 29, 2020 Sara Flounders, Workers.org. , , ,
Does the COVID-19 virus operate differently in capitalist countries than in socialist countries? Based on a comparison of global numbers of fatalities, COVID-19 seems to appear in a more virulent form in capitalist countries. But  is this even possible? The impact of COVID-19 in capitalist countries is more than 20 to 50 times worse than in socialist countries or in countries with high levels of social mobilization. The longer and wider this virus spreads, the clearer this political difference becomes. By every possible measure of COVID and of deaths due to a host of many other neglected sicknesses, it is clear that the capitalist profit system itself is the greatest danger to people’s health and well-being.

Second COVID-19 Wave And The US Economy

June 18, 2020 Jack Rasmus. , , ,
It is increasingly likely that things are about to get worse in terms of US public health. And as that happens, so too will the US economy experience a further negative impact from the virus. A second wave now emerging means not just a further decline in public health, but an eventual second wave of problems for the US economy as well. What a second wave all but ensures is that the US economic recovery will not be ‘V-Shape’ but will be ‘W-Shape’; that is, a W shape recovery characterized by periods of short and shallow GDP growth, followed by brief periodic economic relapses thereafter. These short, shallow recoveries and relapses may repeat and continue for years to come. Following such a duration of economic stagnation, a major threat grows that could usher in an economic depression perhaps even worse than the 1930s: should the economic stress building from weak, short and shallow recoveries—i.e. an extended deep economic stagnation for years to come—result in an inevitable flood of business, local government, and household debt defaults and bankruptcies, it will eventually overwhelm the financial system.

COVID-19: A Polygraph For These Times

June 18, 2020 Pasqualina Curcio, Ultimas Noticias. , , ,
Like a lie detector, COVID-19 has made obvious at least two phenomena that have been taking place already over the past few years: the decline of the U.S. empire and the failure of capitalism. For a number of years now, the U.S. has been losing this super-power status, its economy has lost range, and the dollar has hit the skids.  Its international reserves do not cover even 2% of the exorbitant external debt and it is not sufficient for even 2 months of imports (hence the desperation to re-open the economy in the midst of the pandemic.)  for decades, the U.S. has imported more than it has exported,  and its commercial dependence on China is ever increasing.  The U.S. does not have the gold to back up its currency, and, to cap it off, has run out of petroleum reserves quite a while ago. COVID-19 has not only pointed out the economic weakness of the U.S.,  shown in the rude and arrogant attitude of the government in the midst of the pandemic, it has also served as a catalyst of world reorganization that has been years in the making.

Why Covid-19 Racial Disparities Make The Case For Medicare For All

June 10, 2020 By Dean E. Robinson, The Smirking Chimp. , , ,
The racial disparities of COVID-19 have received much attention. Blacks are dying at a higher rate that is typically more than double the rate of whites. But we need to move beyond naming the problem of fighting for solutions. Medicare for All would go a long way to beginning to address racial disparities in health care in general and for COVID-19 in particular. The obvious and immediate need of black and other working-class populations caught in the teeth of the pandemic is the right to health care treatment without the burden of cost. Even before the pandemic, lower-income, Latino, and younger workers were more likely to be uninsured. Undocumented workers had the highest rates of uninsurance. The pronounced differences in COVID-19 mortality are not driven by a lack of health care per se but a reflection of how the virus compounds health problems created by inequality.

Capitalism’s ‘Dirty Little Secret’

May 30, 2020 Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead, Occupy.com. , , ,
At a time when wealth is concentrated in the hands of a tiny elite, maintaining comfortable living standards for the majority requires reliance on abundant borrowing. Too much lending, as we saw in the financial crisis of 2008 with the collapse of global investment banks like Lehman Brothers, can have devastating impacts on everyday people. Nevertheless, somehow lending is now described as “the answer to capitalism’s dirty little secret.” That dirty little secret is coming back to haunt us amid the current crisis where lending is being treated as an immediate "solution" to help businesses and economies weather the financial storm. The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed the global economy on to a cliff edge, even as there were encouraging signs of an economic recovery from the 2008 banking collapse.
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