What Is The Coronavirus Revealing About Our America?

It is like we are in the aftermath of a nuclear war except that the bombs only gave us fallout. The streets are almost empty as are many of the shelves in the supermarkets. And we are being told to stay inside for the sake of our health.

The Coronavirus will be remembered for the dramatic impact it has made on our way of life, especially that part that involves the economy, our entertainment and social life. The question is whether the current quasi self-quarantine of most Americans is manageable in the long run--that is will it cause more harm than it prevents?

Meanwhile, we should use this time to reflect on what the Coronavirus is revealing about our nation and ourselves. For example, the most immediate impact of the virus was the empty store shelves where we assumed that we could easily buy water, paper products such as paper towels and toilet paper, hand sanitizer and so on. Many of us noticed the shortages in those goods because the shortages were staring us in the face. Those shortages were due to either hoarding or the opportunism by some who cleared out store shelves to sell those products on websites like Ebay and Amazon. Of course those sales would be there solely for the benefit of the sellers. And that is inadequately regulated Capitalism.

Whatever the reason, we should note that the Coronavirus might be providing us a microcosm of our society and economy. Our current form of Capitalism, Neoliberal Capitalism, has, with the exception of a few years following the economic collapse of 2007, caused decades long growth in wealth disparity both between the economic classes and between the races. And with that growing wealth disparity has come a political disparity between the economic classes (click America Is An Oligarchy).

We should note here that the shortage of toilet paper many of us are experiencing is nothing compared to the shortage of wealth experienced by those in the lower economic classes There is the exception that while our shortages are projected to be short-lived, their shortages not only see no end and are dire. Many of us don't pay attention to that wealth disparity and its effects on others because it doesn't affect us. But we should note that the causes for that ever increasing wealth disparity is the same as the causes for our shortages: hoarding and opportunism.

The federal response shows who counts in our nation. The Federal Reserve, under the Trump Administration, announced that it would 'inject' $1.5 Trillion into the short-term money markets through 'short-term collateralized loans' to ease the crisis (click here). Like Trump's cuts in environmental regulations and taxes for the wealthy, the Federal Reserve plan provides immediate and substantial help for the wealthy. However, the government is offering no help to those in the lower economic classes.

We should note that there is an irony in the conservative position that celebrates the wealth generated by Wall Street. For the conservative objection to big government was that it would give government too much power. But there seems to be no conservative qualms in putting more and more of our nation's economy into the hands of Wall Street--which essentially centralizes our wealth-- where its members are not accountable to any democratic process nor are they answerable to the Market when the Federal Government continues to bail them out. One might wonder whether Wall Street is using the real threat and problems posed by the Coronavirus as a cover for being bailed out of an eventual significant correction or collapse.

And if you add Trump's proposed suspension in Federal payroll taxes, the deficit will soar even higher than it has been which will increase the future threat that the debt poses on the economy. And, again, the poor will not be helped. And if austerity programs become the result, the poor will be the primary victims.

Regardless of which political party controls the White House, the President favors those with wealth over all others. But what is most evident under the Trump Administration is that we are experiencing an Ayn Rand coup of the government. In that coup what we see is a continual cutting of business from its social responsibilities. And this serves the interests of the owners of businesses, publicly-owned businesses that is, the shareholders. And it is for the purpose of maximizing short-term profits for the shareholders that both the pre-Coronavirus policies of Trump along with the current ones exist. As for many of the rest of us, our survival depends on how tightly we hang on to the coattails of the wealthy.