If I am right about the correlation, our covid apocalypse may just be another signal that oligarchic capitalism is bad for people. They can maintain the taxes that support strong local public health institutions, stockpiling of PPE (neoliberalism led California to sell its stock off), and can mandate shutdowns and other mitigation measures without being countermanded by big corporations. In contrast, countries with managed capitalism and strong workers unions and a significant public sector are less unequal but also thus less under the thumb of the plutes. In places like North Dakota, there isn’t even a difference between the libertarian-leaning business classes and the government. So I think this list of high death-rate/ high inequality societies may in part be a list of capitalist oligarchies, where the government has been told by the plutocrats not to interfere in business. Mitigation efforts are bad for consumer capitalism, and the conservative ideology of the business classes value property over the lives of individuals (especially poor or marginal individuals). So how might levels of economic inequality be related to high COVID-19 death rates? Well, I’m figuring on the back of a napkin here, but I think in unequal societies the wealthy are unusually powerful. Obviously, we have to toss out countries with high gini coefficients and also very young populations, as not comparable.
It is suspicious that, with the exception of Belgium, the worst-hit societies are all capitalist and all have high degrees of inequality. The worst countries in the world for mortality per hundred thousand population, according to Johns Hopkins, are below, with their gini coefficient (a measure of economic inequality): Still, Germany, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong are all capitalist countries, yet they have very low death rates. The problem isn’t merely capitalism, though capitalism may be a big part of the problem. Ron DeSantis in Florida is another huge failure in this regard. People often do not understand that he had tools with the Centers for Disease Control that could have tamped the virus down last spring, and that he for the most part refused to wield them.īut as the case of Burgum the Burier shows, it isn’t just Trump. And, the Lord knows, Trump bears special responsibility. Our mass media tend to make everything into a matter of personalities, so it is easy to blame Trump. Still, it is clear that some governments do a better job with it than others. Old countries are more vulnerable than young countries, which may explain why the expected COVID apocalypse did not strike Africa. Italy’s high death rate certainly has something to do with the high median age of its population. Obviously, there are many intervening variables. I have been thinking about why Trump’s America is one of the worst countries in the world for dealing with the pandemic. We have national community spread, folks. Anthony Fauci as saying, ““Community spread doesn’t stop spontaneously unless you do something about it.” When you have people in charge of the government who do not believe in it, they are unable to wield the government during a crisis that demands good governance.Ī leaked internal White House task force memo admitted, “Current mitigation efforts are inadequate and must be increased.” The Guardian also quotes Dr.
Burgum resisted implementing social distancing measures on the grounds that that would represent the heavy hand of the government. He is a dotcom entrepreneur with no experience of governing, and his health department is also run by a businessman rather than medical personnel. He is, by the way, the worst leader in the entire world on the coronavirus crisis, what with having policies that killed off one in a thousand of his people. Dakota, Douglas Burgum, resisted a statewide mask mandate until last week. Newsweek reports that North Dakota has the world’s worst death rate for COVID-19, what with 1 in every 1,000 residents having died of it. Some states, however, are particular basket cases. That’s more infected people than at any time since the infection broke out in February.Ĭases are on the rise in all fifty states. It is estimated that 3 million Americans are walking around infected right now and spreading the disease. There were 161,000 new cases on Tuesday, more new cases than on any day ever before. Johns Hopkins reports that 1,707 Americans died of COVID-19 on Tuesday, more than on any other day ever. Nor is the worrisome death rate in the rear-view mirror. Trump had predicted a worst case of 50,000 deaths last spring, but then Donald Trump could not find his ass with both hands.
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Holly Yan, Christina Maxouris and Theresa Waldrop at CNN report that the United States has passed the grim milestone of 250,000 deaths.
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