Well said, bravo, just perfect! The coronavirus crisis is exposing the many weaknesses in our system of healthcare, and the rush to patch those holes just might - maybe, perhaps - allow us to follow through on permanent fixes.
23
No socialism for this country in the wake of the coronavirus, just billions in bailouts and stimulus packages for the free market capitalists.
16
Build on what the virus has started.
Avoid all unnecessary purchases till after the November election.
The best defense to a dictator is starving his economy.
17
What we've seen is how incompetent the GOP is willing to be when their interests are not involved. This is nothing new. And I'm sure that they will find a way to weasel out of making any permanent changes that might benefit all Americans.
13
No we are not. In fact even in the midst of the Coronavirus crisis we had the choice to vote for a socialist and we firmly rejected it,
3
All of a sudden Bernie's idea of Medicare for all does not sound crazy.
Not too long ago there was such a thing as paid sick leave, health care and lets not forget a traditional pension plan provided by many employers. Thanks to greed , special interest, Wall Street, lobbyists and crooked politicians
(Republicans), many of these benefits if not all have gone disappeared.
17
Of course the whole premise of this article is a squib. Wink-wink, socialism got nothing to do with it.
The fact that companies are picking up the tab for employees to get tested or treated for coronavirus has a far simpler explanation. It's called self-preservation.
The key point is that employees who can't afford testing or treatment will likely stay at work -- thus putting other workers at risk and possibly shutting down the whole business.
The same is true of taxpayer funding of coronavirus victims. Those taxpayer dollars are intended to protect people without the coronavirus by segregating and treating people with a highly contagious disease. Since the principal beneficiaries are those who haven't gotten infected, it is only rational and fair that they should pick up the tab.
That is why there is nothing inconsistent with holding that individuals should generally pick up the tab for expenses up to, say, 15% or 20% of their annual income but that everyone with a contagious disease should have their care paid for by everyone else.
But if it tickles your funny bone, smirk away!
4
@Bill. Oh for cryin’ out loud. Another Boomer rant! There were plenty of poor Boomers in the 60s who were just trying to get by. You know, like the way they are now. They didn’t practice anything but trying to make ends meet. No generation can’t help when they’re born. Yes, the 60s represented freedom for some, but are you saying those ideas weren’t needed at that time? Your bigger picture is very limited. The time is now for more freedom, to be free of kleptocracy and racism. Call it what you want.
3
Will Trump actually begin to act like a man and not a 2nd grader?
Naw. And my apologies to 2nd graders.
3
"suddenly it’s like we’re turning into Denmark over here."
Manjoo is setting up a straw man argument.
The Federal Government has to react to critical situations.
In 1967 troops from the 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions were deployed to Detroit. They were bivouacked 3 blocks from our house on the near east side of Detroit. Were they needed? Yes. Folks in my neighborhood seemed determined to ruin it. It was a modest lower- and lower-middle class neighborhood that had two major super markets and a thriving farmer's market. Both super markets were looted and one was burned. Afterwards a second tier supermarket moved into the neighborhood and you could hear the cries of "Look! Redlining!"
Would we want troops there permanently? Probably not.
I'm not sure if Manjoo lived in this sort of neighborhood in NY and experienced this sort of thing. Maybe, but who knows.
1
I think you give Republicans — especially the members of the Cult of the Red Hat — too much credit. Many of them still maintain that Covid-19 is a hoax calculated to ‘make Trump look bad’; many others still dismiss it as no more serious than the common cold. Others cavalierly say ‘it’s only serious if you’re old or already sick anyway,’ the message apparently being that we’re just weeding the weaklings out of our flock.
Medicare for all - now or ever - ain’t even on their radar screen.
5
Except Sen Lamar Alexander who doesn’t want any working American getting a “free 14 day holiday” with legislated paid sick days!
7
Now is the time for all good libertarians to come to the aid of their country.
1
As Cornel West says: Philanthropy is not justice.
Health care for all is justice and a basic human right.
Complaints about paying for it are outward manifestations of selfishness.
If 20 leading economists just signed a letter arguing Medicare for All would generate massive savings for American families then why are we listening to the naysayers and the editorial board of The New York Times?
8
Americans usually come/work together during a crisis. They do so voluntarily as individuals. Those using this situation as a path to socialism are disgusting opportunists Monday morning quarterbacking. Countries with socialized medicine will be just as overwhelmed as those with private doctors if not more so. We're all in this together yes ...socialist opportunists likely won't gain politically with such abhorrent talk
1
Mr. Manjoo, I hope you now realize that the extreme urban density you urged for the US in earlier columns, with everyone relying on public transit, is the best way ever to spread an epidemic.
3
Farhad, triangulate across the ten largest economies of Europe, on their varied approaches to the crisis...
Now, correlate that with the level of socialism afoot in that country...
And then come back and talk to us...
1
Corona to Trump, Putin and Xi and Iranian autocrats: Your time on this planet will end very soon.
2
Hit that nail on the head!!!
1
You may be talking about republican highly selective socialism so that the coronavirus epidemic comes under control sooner than later...and allow them to control power, under their useful idiot DJT, to abuse it. Capitalism unhinged is not what we need, as it tends to increase our odious inequality and corporate monopolies. What we need is a social democracy that represents, and supports, all of us equitably. Have we forgotten that 'a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link'? And that capitalism without ethics may be worse than any other system, as it allows human greed to flourish; which shall divide, if not destroy, us. You see, our so appreciated freedom is just a dream if justice is ignored, another issue we used to value in this democracy. And G.O.P.'s selectiveness now smacks as pure hypocrisy.
3
Anyone who thinks Biden and his crony capitalist pals will help the average American more than Trump is a sucker. By the way, I own some bridges in New York I can let you have real cheap.
3
Headline: " Republicans Want Medicare for All, but Just for This One Disease"
The cruel irony here is almost enjoyable. The poor, low wage middle-class folks and the haphazard statistical victim are going to be the largest most potent vector that potentially infects more than 100 plus million Americans - many of them Republicans. Republicans during normal times could care less about the medical emergencies facing the working poor. With the larger population (inclusive of the self serving GOP) facing the corona virus, suddenly there is concern about the medically uninsured. Even worse for the GOP is the equally important fact that the fight against Covid-19 is being lead by their dear leader - the paragon of competence and science. Talk about supreme ironies,
6
Let's identify daily those restaurants that do not provide paid sick leave.
Customers will choose to shun them.
4
Listening to Trump's political speech this night in which he bragged about his own efforts and efforts to help corporations affected by the virus was not a socialist speech. Let's face it. Trump has no sympathy except for his own political fortunes and how he can some how turn this social crisis to his own advantage. Does he speak to the fears of people and of the things that have not happened to fight this illness like inadequate face mask production or respirators for the very sick? It is all about his own political glory as he pontificates from the Oval Office.
2
Thank you for this excellent essay, Mr. Manjoo. If only your colleagues at the NY Times were as understanding. Even the American College of Physicians now backs universal healthcare. It takes a tragedy for some to realize that all Americans need healthcare and it should be their birthright.
11
The base truth is clear. That which separates many, money, also endangers us all. If basic protections aren't available to everyone is anyone truly protected? We all eat, sleep, shop, learn, and interact socially in various situations indiscriminately. The people among us who cannot afford to protect themselves or their families with basic care unknowingly or unwilling endanger us all. We need cashier's and stock brokers, athletes and educators. If one is sick and is forced to work? There is no need to roll back only to ramp up. There is no single strain of danger but we all face it, rich or poor, young or old, educated or illiterate, trying to push it down only makes it stronger and more dangerous. Our social construct is sick and we are starting to learn about the repercussions because of a simple virus.
1
This is a brilliant column. Well written, straight to the point. Ideology is inflexible. Republicans and moderate Democrats so oppose the concept of Democratic Socialism that they fail to grasp that achieving a reasonable equality of opportunity and conditions strengthens, as opposed to weakens, a state. If Republicans and moderate Democrats favour collectivist thinking in the face of this pandemic, it is because it is all too clear, at the present moment, in the present circumstances, that the weakest link endangers the integrity of the whole chain - i.e. that the chain is only as strong as the weakest link, which is currently very, very weak. Will Republicans and moderate Democrats recognize, in the wake of this crisis, how important this concept is to the fundamental security of the state and moderate their ideological inflexibility? Will they open their minds and start thinking again? In essence, will they seek to help common people in circumstances in which they reason that the weakest link will not endanger the chain based on their newly acquired understanding that a state must seek at all moments to be as “strong” (capable of thriving in a variety of adverse potential contexts) as possible? I doubt they will, just as the author does. But this is just the opening salvo. Numerous other known and unknown crises await.
4
Many good points and here is another: the climate emergency.
Crisis is fast becoming our new normal. In fact, pandemics on out hotter planet will occur with greater frequency, not to mention catastrophic weather events, water and food shortages and climate related mass migration.
The delusion that we can maintain our rich against poor casino capitalism is collapsing. Forget rugged individualism. We need each other and the compassionate measures cited in this article are a good start.
A progressive and democratic socialist platform is our last best chance.
7
Excellent piece & appreciated a lot more by someone who doesn't live in the U.S. It sounds depressing to read some of the basic things Americans have to fight for when it's almost taken for granted in the rest of the civilized world.
7
I get really, really tired of being told what any one group believes by someone who is pretty much out of touch. My experience has taught me that most Democrats and most Republicans are fine people who have different ideas about how problems should be addressed. Most of us are a lot more concerned about our families and a lot less concern about party politics. Both parties are primarily concerned about themselves, not the citizens of our country. QED
2
It sounds touching, but all these workers already earned the money that is generously being returned to them. It was called taxes, and the reverse Robin Hoods in our current administration orchestrated the scheme.
That tax revenue was given away to the very corporations that have now been visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future. But they've been sitting on mountains of cash, refusing to invest in living wages or healthcare, folding profits back into stock buybacks, and reaping the rewards from Trump Inc.'s pyramid scheme for the wealthiest.
And now the companies realize that without their workers, they may actually suffer; a virus doesn't study supply side economics. So they pay workers to stay home for a little while, wait out the little problem of the unwashed masses, and it's business as usual.
My only hope is that the coronavirus kills the for-profit healthcare industry first.
12
My Congressional Representative, a democrat, sent out a survey asking for my thoughts on healthcare a few years ago. I suggested that cancer under age 50, which is genetic for almost all, be fully paid for from federal funds. I'd further suggest that sickle cell anemia and type 1 diabetes be included, as well as M.S. etc. Crickets. We still have a system where everyone who works pays a premium, and everyone who is ill pays much more than the cost of their own care in order to subsidize the elderly, who are often wealthy enough to not need the subsidy.
1
Consider the corona virus epidemic from Trump's business perspective. If construction workers were injured on the job, Trump fought tooth and nail to deny or reduce benefits. If people in administrative positions fell ill, too bad. His was (and is) a private company; he can do whatever he wants, and if he wants to stiff his employees in the same way he stiffed contractors for years, so what?
As President, Trump is supposed to have developed a much more nuanced, broad scale perspective, of course starting from the premise that citizens are not workers or his employees. He doesn't seem to have learned the difference.
Tonight, he will likely go on TV and throw out a number of Trumpian initiatives that he thought about all by himself, such as paid leave, a suspension of the payroll tax, and delaying tax filing. He will pat himself on the back and, once again, argue that the pandemic is overblown.
He will not have learned even the first lesson of a crisis: marshaling resources to help people, as if they were family.
3
We already have medicare for one disease. Pretty much dialysis in the us is paid for by medicare. It was thought to be such a miracle when it was developed that there was political will for it. American healthcare is quite fixable, but a solution requires that sort of political will.
1
"Republicans who had long opposed this sort of 'socialized medicine' were now conceding that, well, of course, they didn’t mean it quite so absolutely."
For the Republican Party, it's on;y about re-electing Trump.
And BTW, "classifying" White House discussions about coronavirus makes them Trump Re-election Campaign strategy sessiona, which is illegal.
1
I guess it's difficult for anyone to pull themselves up by their bootstraps when they have coronavirus.
How is that different from having a genetic predisposition to something bad or being in the wrong place at the wrong time?
7
@Mike S. This is America. We have belief structures in place to deal with this thorny dilemma.
Maybe the coronavirus sufferers shouldn't have been breathing that tainted air to begin with. Did you ever consider that?
Checkmate, socialists.
1
And this is the moment for Dems to talk about a better health care system and make permanent paid for sick leave as a condition for the inevitable bail outs.
6
Thank you for an excellent, insightful column.
2
These changes will be hard to roll back.
34
Just this one disease is a really good start! And it will not be a small start. The notion of externalities serves to define the proper role of government. Contagious diseases are a very serious externality.
1
Every single day can feel like a crisis for the poor and struggling. Nobody in charges cares in the slightest, or does a single thing to help them, except when it impacts the comfortable and secure. They foam at the mouth in hatred and anger at socialism that provides health and welfare to those in need. Except when it might impact them, and suddenly they're all for it and can get do-nothing Congress to pass a bill lickety split.
*Of course* they won't remember after this crisis is over. It will be back to business as usual, filling their own pockets and totally ignoring anyone who doesn't already have wealth or power.
8
America's most socialized businesses are also it's most Republican. Farming - pure socialism. Whenever American farmers show that they cannot compete in the free markets with overseas farmers, they get a government payment. They are paid not to plant crops if there is oversupply - by the government. They can get guaranteed government loans, get paid if they produce crops but also if they have crop failures. All from the government. There is almost no capitalism left for farmers.
And coal miners. They get government health care (but hate the idea that anyone else might). Their industry cannot compete with other sources of energy and is dangerous and damaging to the world, but they demand the government prop them up in spite of their inability to compete in a free market system - extreme socialism.
So it's no surprise when the Republicans face blame for failing to create an effective response to this pandemic they turn to - socialism. Just don't call it that - because that's fake news.
23
@robert Socialism for me, rugged individualism for you.
America in a nutshell.
2
I have always supported social safety nets. As a social worker, it's been easy to see the gaps in the American non-system. During a pandemic, it's even worse, especially for those who live paycheck to paycheck, no matter why. As much as I do not want people to be ill and/or die from this virus, perhaps we will glean two benefits from it.
1. Improve safety nets for all who need them.
2. Get rid of Trump who has no idea how to handle this or any other crisis.
12
We are repeating what Eleanor Roosevelt warned about decades ago - when inequity is this great, no one is safe.
Did we learn nothing from the Gilded Age of the 1920s?
9
Socialism is the best case scenario, fascism is the worst. Unfortunately, epidemics also have the tendency to make people into fascists (or at least authoritarians) by making it very attractive to have a strong man to implement restrictive and likely oppressive measures towards targeted groups.
4
@Victoria Of course it is pretty much the case that socialist are often fascists as well. See Nazi government for a great example. In order to impose socialism, fascist methods are often used.
Fabulous essay, Farhad. Thank you.
11
Clearly in this, the most ideological country in the world:
Socialism == Bad Stuff I Don't Like.
Capitalism == Collective Public Goods I Like.
Under the latter go the usual suspects:
Highway and road system;
Spectator sports stadiums;
Airports and seaports;
Broadcast airwaves;
Fracking subsidies;
Agricultural subsidies;
Clean air;
In many places, electric power, sewage and water.
And so forth. The real problem is that this is a subjective definition of "socialism". There is only one objective definition: The class rule of workers, not capitalists. What workers as the ruling class do with that power is up to them, not our subjective utopian speculations.
3
I disagree with the premise that a potential pandemic, and a humane and effective government response, is the same thing as day to day health care concerns. Health care is a huge priority and there is a lot of corporate abuse in the costs of care and insurance.
That does not equate to free health care across the board.
A pandemic requires a one off response of a size that only an effective government response can deal with. Your kid having a cold or broken arm is a completely different animal.
The "medicare for all" thinking is not a viable option in our nation for many reasons, not the least of which is the shear number of people who would lose their jobs if "insurance" was suddenly outlawed.
My personal belief is more along the lines of government option on the Insurance exchanges as the first step to getting a handle on rising health care costs.
We need to fix the profiteering aspect of medical companies & remove the pseudo-Not-For-Profit designation so many have
We need to fix tax loopholes across the board and remove refundable tax credits for corporations and individuals making more $1 million dollars in revenues and set a MINIMUM tax they cannot deduct under.
additionally a 5 cent per share tax on every share of stock bought and sold, and every subscription (Netflix) should have the same tax each month of the plan.
These should NOT be refundable.
We can afford a lot of things if we clean up the tax code. But everyone will still pay more even if we do.
1
@mikenola Haven't you heard? They can be retrained.
I do not think that there is really anything that new here. Most people would probably have always supported some type of socialized medicine if it applied to contagious diseases only. It is possible for some people to think "If someone I do not know develops cancer or heart disease, that is not my problem." However, I do not think that anyone ever thought "If someone I do not know develops a contagious disease, that is not my problem." The former would be selfishness but the latter would be a lack of common sense.
4
A strong, decisive government response.
Adequate healthcare resources.
Transparent communication.
Our capitalist system has provided this throughout our history of other health crisis and others.
I don't see any of the socialist nations winning this effort.
Do you?
1
Interesting how when Republicans need the government (hurricanes, coronavirus, tornadoes), they are for the government. But when it doesn't suit them, get the government out of their lives.
8
Another brilliant piece, unforced and incisive. Thank you Mr. Manjoo and Times.
4
All of these anti social safety net people will have their hands out for Corporate Welfare. Hypocrites! Companies that have made big profits off the tax cuts should be made to pay any Corporate Welfare back to the USA government at a later date. I think it is called deferred payments.
8
This is perfect. We are only as strong as our weakest link.
No one can avoid the uninsured.
2
I don't think we have a word for the consequences of an advanced economy becoming a wasteland, where the process of employees aggregating in a factory, executive suite, retail establishment, etc, etc etc. is no more.
There were eras before people were paid for services, there were serfs, gentry, and royalty .... and people knew their status and the appropriate duties. No need to save for emergencies, as you simply died,
Just how long can our current mercantile system survive when there are no employees or customers? So Trump is allowing tax payments to be deferred, big deal, he did an about face to the Tea Party who would allow zero deficits to the same party accepting that deficits don't matter at all.
If Trump is willing to extend payment of taxes until this pandemic is over, just how long would that be. Nothing to purchase as no one iwould be making or selling anything.
Between Trump and the opposite, the Green New Deal clocked in vertual combat, we have a new and examined model, only it's never been tried before.
challenge approaching.
Let's not forget, the Great Depression was not ended by FDR's policies, and it was into it's second decade, when the Axis forces gave us full employment of WWII.
2
The Coronavirus will inculcate the idea of more socialist programs administered by the federal government subsequent to the pandemic.
A deep recession/ depression will induce a need for unity formed by federal programs. It will be similar to the 1930s. For how long, I cannot say.
Thus, the Coronavirus will be a watershed in American history. Government will no longer be the problem, it will be the solution. And for the majority a salvation.
5
Yeah. Let's wait and see. Bloomberg promised to pay his staffers through to November even if he wasn't running, and then he reneged on that. Hard to find solid ground when the world is quicksand.
6
What you’re really talking about is a strong social safety net. Socialism is an entirely different animal.
3
@Lena
Socialism is exactly about "a strong social safety net".
It's the realization, in practice, of the fact that we, collectively, _are_ our safety net.
And it's not just defensive/protective. It's the positive/constructive realization, in practice, of the fact that we _are_ social, through and through.
4
Except that the doctors in the countries with socialist forms of health care are now deciding who they will allow to live... go ask the doctors in Milan RIGHT NOW, that is what they are deciding
1
@Randy: And you think with an overwhelmed healthcare system, that the US will not end up with triage? Healthcare in the US is already rationed, leaving out those not able to pay.
18
@Randy
(Funny how a country like Italy is considered capitalist when you want to say it's not bad and socialist when you want to say it's bad.)
First responders, and then medical professionals, in any emergency, anywhere, *triage the victims*:
* black (gone or goner)
* red (need immediate help to survive)
* yellow (stable, but need help now)
* green (walking wounded, need help later)
* white (move along, no help needed)
https://www.medicinenet.com/medical_triage_code_tags_and_triage_terminology/views.htm
Corona virus 19 that I tell you it was a created in the labs of China. To stop the people of Hong Kong to eradicate them but they made a mistake they unleashed it to the world and now were suffering from their labs this should be an eye-opener approved by Pres. Donald Trump and his aministration and the Republican Party. So God help us all.
1
Note: The author of this article is not advocating for actual Socialism. He wants the US to have something of a safety net that almost all other industrialized nations have. Please read the article and lighten up a bit. Thank you for your time.
9
"For those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die." ~Ted Kennedy. Medicare for All!
2
Don't count on it. In moments of crisis, people temporarily become human. We have short attention spans.
1
Everyone at the top has always been a socialist -- when those policies help corporate America.
You'd think the Fortune 500 would be in the vanguard of Medicare for All. It's just that the competing interest of pauperizing workers, and the dogmas of the executive suites -- nothing is worse than an example of good government -- are too strong, absent the present emergency.
"Companies and lawmakers" -- what would we do without these brigands?
6
This is about decisions at the corporate level. What I see in stores is people buying as much of a needed item for themselves as they can, leaving nothing for others. Costco has staff in place to make sure people don’t take more than two packages of bottled water. The American masses are still lacking in empathy and regard for one another. There is an every-person-for-themselves mentality. We do need Other People to be able to wash their hands too in order to stay healthy!
4
@LJIS True, and if caring about our society as a whole makes me a Socialist, I guess I am one!
3
Your best column. One more form of socialism is the Federal Reserve Bank interest rate cut to boost (in vain)
the macro-economy, and the stock market in particular. Monetary policy is probably the least targeted instrument to help the specific sectors and populations most affected by the virus. The record low interest rates maintain for so long have allowed the banks to cash in on the derivatives economy and for the corporations to have $10 trillion in debt parked in low to lowest grate investment ratings. Driving the interest rates yet lower helps only the banks, and not the industries and public programs that must be strengthened to respond to the pandemic. Loan forbearance and postponing foreclosures would help consumers, and could easily be borne by the banks.
2
If what is happening in Northern Italy is any indication of what is going to happen here, God help us.
3
Excellent article. Thank you.
3
Every time you hear a Republican say healthcare shouldn't be a right, just remember that this virus wouldn't have been an issue if every single American was guaranteed healthcare and sick leave.
Every single Republican is to blame for this. When your family is sick because some low paid employee with no health coverage couldn't take time off with an infectious disease, remember it was Republicans who said "the right to health care means you believe in slavery".
14
The weird part about the Coronavirus is that the economic issues which have led to this bull market is a disruption in the supply chain. This is very different from the situation we faced in 2008. This isn't something they can just throw money at to mitigate the problem. If they do try this again it won't do anything other than going to stock buybacks just like they got from the GOP in their last tax scam.
3
Thank you, Mr. Farhad Manjoo for your well-written column. You point out clearly our flawed system that this virus now bares for all to see. A strong safety net is essential for the security, health, and well-being of our country's population. Sadly, I believe after this crisis is past, as you point out, we'll return to "business as usual", that is, stiffing the worker.
7
Beautiful...
2
Not really! Away and apart from all except spouse and kids living with you, is the best way!
1
Jesus Christ of Nazareth was a humble humane empathetic left-wing community organizing pacifist socialist who had compassion and concern for the poor, the sick, the imprisoned, the hungry, the homeless, the despairing and the stranger.
6
...who said “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice for they shall be filled.” and “Blessed are those who are persecuted in the cause of justice for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”
1
@Blackmamba
That is the Jesus in the version of the Bible that you and I both must have read.
I am long convinced that there is another version of the Bible out there, depicting a wholly different Jesus. Too much modern "Christianity" is otherwise inexplicable.
2
Wrong. We're in a pandemic and I'm still not a socialist.
13
@Mark Employers allowing paid sick leave is not socialism. It is called employers taking care of their employees. The author is particularly naive on this issue. And for the umpteenth time, Scandinavia has pockets of socialism but the economy is not socialist. The response of the federal government and some government agencies to the pandemic is evidence that we cannot allow the healthcare industry to be monopolized by the government although I am all for a public option.
23
@Mark Whether you in particular are a socialist or not doesn't matter. The favorable sentiments in this article about socialist responses is obviously resting on the correct fear of the movement from the right to privatize and commodify, exploit all human need like water and oxygen for profit. The shorthand labeling that you indulge in doesn't in any way further the conversation.
43
@Mark
When you agree with privatization of the profits and socialization of the losses, you are still a socialist.
53
The heart of capitalism is clearly rattled but not Trump, who has proposed only 8.5 billion dollars to fight the Coronavirus and 700 billion dollars for a largely unspecified stimulus package.
The only way to fight what is now a pandemic is to make tax payer funded healthcare for all wage a war on this virus. Taxpayer funded healthcare must become a permanent feature of the US. A failure to fight this virus with all the resources of advanced medicine will result in the deaths of potentially hundreds of millions of people worldwide.
This is not 1918, people need to stand up and demand action, otherwise I fear for humanity.
2
@Koret
Correction: Trump proposed only 2.5 billion. Congress insisted on 8 billion.
1
Farhad, I assume you also would be promoting authoritarian leadership because we needed it in a crisis or perhaps torture because it saved lives during 9-11. A crisis may require unnatural acts but it is a far cry from making them policy.
4
No, Farhad, we are not Socialists in a pandemic.
We are working together to overcome this.
It has nothing to do with your ideological preferences.
BTW, Socialism was roundly rejected last night.
America wants moderation.
6
@Simon Sez You call it socialism. The rest of the world calls it social democracy.
6
Speak for yourself, Mr. Manjoo, I am not and never will be a Socialist. I am an American. Thank you.
2
Everyone knows that "PANDEMIC" is really "PANIC" with "DEM" neatly tucked inside it.
2
Still not buying the socialist thing.
1
I’m not buying this. It’s not like the republicans suddenly see the advantages to a national safety net for American citizens. All they are worried about is the effects of a pandemic on their watch, and the potential change in attitude towards national benefits by the population at large. They will do the bare minimum to keep everyone from boiling over while the threat is staring them in the face, but as soon as things calm down, it will be back to figuring out how to destroy Obamacare, and slash Medicare. Last week, the idiot in charge was still exhorting everyone to “go to work, I’m not worried, it’s no worse than the flu,”. etc.
6
The Coronavirus will teach Republicans nothing.
5
I was put off by the title. Despite the repeated attempts of many well-informed people (including some in this newspaper) to educate Americans about the profound difference between socialism and social democracy, the title conflates them once again. Paid sick leave is not a socialist measure. It is part of the social safety net that any developed country should provide for its citizens. It’s existence tells you nothing about the economic system as a whole. The USSR had a paid sick leave. So does Norway. Only one of them is a socialist country.
5
The title of this article provides some evidence that life is not black and white and that truth and commonality can be found in apparently different philosophies, ideas or concepts, as long as the end goal is the good and well being of us all. Communism, Socialism, and Capitalism and everything in between all have good and bad aspects to them, and some level of truth. Saying "Everyone" is also an extreme, as I am sure someone (more than one) is trying to think on how to make money in a true capitalistic way out of all this …. Mess-demic.
1
@Kevin Rothstein No one is expects healthcare to be free. I was recently hospitalized for 7 days in Finland with pneumonia.The total cost to me was $921. The top tax rate in Finland is 51%. Because I'm in the highest tax bracket in California, I pay 39% plus 7% which equals 46%. And what do I get for it?..the opportunity to pay $1700/month for private insurance when I was 64 years old. I'm now on "socialist" MediCare and love it ...and...gladly pay $400/month for it. I employ 41 younger people most of whom don't have health insurance because even with private insurance, they're stuck with a $5000 deductible. I've polled them on the issue.They'd gladly pay $200 or $300 per month if they didn't have to worry about ensuring the safety of their children. I'm sorry to reply with so many facts and figures but ...one more. We currently spend 3.5 trillion a year on healthcare.For 10 years that amounts to 35 trillion. M4A is estimated to cost 32 Trillion over the same period. You do the math. The idea that people aren't willing to pay something for total healthcare coverage,like MediCare, is garbage put out by insurance. company shills.They want people to buy a simple slogan rather than tease out the facts.Nobody is really saying that they expect healthcare to be totally "free".
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A virus doesn't care about politics, wealth, age, race, religion, doesn't care about we or us or them, your family or my family, it doesn't know your name, job title, social status, doesn't care if you're handsome or pretty, whether or not you're above average (who isn't?), or which university accepted or rejected you, doesn't care if you're a solid citizen or on death row.
Fiction becomes fact, we're characters in a Michael Crichton or Stephen King novel, no need to binge watch virus movies, we're all starring in one.
1
These Republicans are the same group that go to services on Sunday but fail to incorporate Jesus's teachings. They wear the mantle of being good Christians but once they walk out the door they revert to their greedy,mean attitude towards their fellow Americans. Recently they enacted new requirements for meals for children in public schools. Some poor kids are actually being denied food in school. Where I live I would see daily a Meals on Wheels truck deliver meals to seniors in need. No more. We have to save money so we can get more tax cuts!
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Perhaps a silver lining of the building catastrophe is to finally show Americans just how backwards we are in terms of social welfare.
I kind of doubt it, though. Solidarity is essentially a dirty word in this country.
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@Vin
Yeah, one might hope that Americans would take a look around, to see how others deal with this, and with everything else: healthcare, education, guns, retirement, vacation,...
Some will, and will have their eyes opened. The institutions, not so much. And the entrenched power, not at all.
Just to get to where capitalist France or South Korea is, in terms of social rights and protections, we may actually need a "political/social revolution".
But we shouldn't need a revolution, just to get civilized. This stuff should be a no-brainer. The civilized world is w a a a a y ahead of us on everything social, and on most other things that really matter.
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I would like to read some reporting on teachers who go to school in spite of being sick due to the fact that many systems do not have paid sick leave. I used to be a K-12 teacher, and I had to miss two weeks of work with the flu and didn’t get paid. I have MS and I was literally on my deathbed (because elementary schools are literally the most disgusting, germ-riddled places on the planet and they are often run by incompetent people who don’t understand the value of keeping things clean) and on top of being in the hospital, I had to worry about not being able to pay bills. I had to stop teaching in a brick-and-mortar environment because of this. So it would be interesting to know if teachers, such as the teacher in Fulton County Schools in Georgia who has Coronavirus, went to work sick because she couldn’t afford not to.
4
What a surprise.
NOT.
1
Bingo! Dead on.
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I love reading your columns, Farhad ; behind Alexandra Petri ( Washington Post) and Paul Krugman, you are my favorite. You are always inciting and illuminating .
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For this new caring, sharing trend to get purchase, the majority will have to overcome the influence of the excessively rich whose philosophical tenets come down to "In greed we trust" and "It sucks to be you". It won't be easy. After all, Americans have been propagandized for decades about "freedom" and how the "socialism" boogey-man must be feared and destroyed at all costs. Good luck forging that new path. It's worth the effort!
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Thanks for the piece. It confirmed for my friends that liberals and socialists view a crisis as a political opportunity. If this was reversed, Republicans would be labeled Nazis for trying to capitalize on a crisis for political gain.
2
@Shamrock whats so wrong about pointing out that a social safety net is a good and civilized thing to have?
9
Makes me think of Regina Spektor’s “Laughing with God” ...
“No one laughs at God in a hospital, no one laughs at God in a war ...”
3
I'm not.
1
Actually the opposite of a socialist is how you should react. Private industry is the key in a pandemic.
Laboratory Corporation of America (LabCorp) and Quest Diagnostics, announced they were now offering tests for the coronavirus. LabCorp’s testing started Thursday, March 5 and Quest’s began Monday, March 9.
Spectrum Health and insurer HAP are offering free coronavirus testing resources. HAP has indicated its members who are tested for the virus will not be asked for a copay, co-insurance or deductible for the lab tests. Spectrum Health is offering free virtual screenings via video screening. A health provider will then advise on whether the individual should seek more care.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, along with Wellcome and Mastercard announced they were launching a $125 million initiative, COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator, to help speed up the development of therapies to treat coronavirus.
Vir Biotechnology and Alnylam Pharmaceutical announced they were expanding their existing collaboration targeting COVID-19.
Gilead Sciences announced it was launching two Phase III clinical trials of its investigational antiviral drug remdesivir in adults diagnosed with COVID-19. T
5
@Just 4 Play It's just not about medical products.
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Yeah, its always the new thing that jars people into awareness. Diabetes is epidemic, eats about a quarter of the Medicare budget, and costs us 350 billion a year, largely in costs we could avoid simply by managing the disease properly in the way of early detection, education, and affordable medication. Boomers aren't getting younger, just more obese and disabled, and we ain't seen nothing yet. That's just one example of the stupidity and expense of neglecting the well-being of the populace.
3
They (most of us are a part of 'they') will forget. Ours is a society too attached to its myths of self-reliance and the improbable 'boot-strap' mentality. Americans think that they would be there for the neighbors when the majority of us don't know our neighbors and wish to live as far away from someone as possible, while still getting same day delivery.
Ronald Reagan, a man who said horribly racist things as governor and president, made the idea of government bad, implying it could never work well unless it were shooting at someone.
I hope that we remember that we're all in this together, but i suspect we're continue to behave like crabs in a barrel.
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The only socialism the GOP and Trump understand is socialism for the RICH. All cost, expenses, and most importantly, environmental loses and degradations are put on the backs of the masses of people as mere externalities. To them, coronavirus 19 is another opportunity to deploy the shock doctrine and provide another transfusion of wealth from the weak to the strong.
We must get rid of these followers of Mammon and Moloch--these ghoulish vampires. Their twisted view of what life is diminishes the earth and threatens us with an irreparably failed state.
3
Medicare for all is suddenly not such a crazy idea. The only true socialist phenomenon taking place is that Coronavirus impacts everyone - no exceptions.
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@Ted To paraphrase the popular trope a bit:
People vote for the Leopard Face Eating Candidate until the Leopards come to eat THEIR face off.
(I changed the word "Party" to "Candidate" because it's abundantly clear that the Pig Candidates from both parties are feeding at the Big Insurance Trough.)
Edit: yes, I just used dueling animal references. Not my finest hour.
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Actually I don't think that the spread of a contagious respiratory disease has anything to do with socialism. If anything, it will show the need for authoritarianism in certain circumstances.
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Let’s not forget the huge profits the pharmaceutical industry is going to reap from this. They’re like munition manufacturers during a war.
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Its amazing what passes for “socialism” these days, that ghastly spectre of Soviet inspired tyranny. If caring for the community is communism, then bring it on in spades. If subsidising the health of individuals otherwise stricken by impecunious situations is Bolshevism, then let the revolution begin.
One thing for sure, someone somewhere will make a vast fortune from this pandemic, the most obvious candidates being pharma companies currently competing to come up with a vaccine. Smaller companies, in various sectors, will be engulfed like viral organisms by the white cells of giant corporations. The stock market will rally and resurge to new record levels.
People will be dead, of course, but capitalism cares little about mortality because it can adapt, evolve, and form immunities to contagions. So far, the major impact of this virus, outside of bereaved families, has been to shareholders, a timorous bunch in a predatory world, who panic at the very hint of a crisis, plunging the financially fragile world into the potential abyss.
We need to learn from our struggles that society needs to be resilient against all threats, biological or fiscal. This is why we need Sanders’ type of politics; it’s radical, it’s courageous, but it’s not impossible. Imagine how the world would shrug off a cold if everyone and everything was prepared and designed to resist it!
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The coronavirus pandemic should make arguments against the ACA in front of the Supreme Court very interesting. How do you claim that the healthcare insurance system in the US must be dismantled in the middle of a pandemic.
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Forty years of disinvesting in human capital - shredding of the safety net, underfunded technical training, downsizing, offshoring, war on unions, lack of publicly funded research and contingency planning, the list goes on.
This is the legacy of the shareholder first, worker last neoliberalism ethic, and it has left us topheavy, bitter and as we now see, very vulnerable. The phrase "social fabric" is not just a cliche', it describes the bonds that tie us together and make the society and the republic strong, and now it's come apart to the extent that we can't even protect ourselves.
Unfortunately the Baby Boomers came of age in this capitalistic epoch. Being marinated in the religion of personal freedom and profits above citizenship and shared sacrifice, I don't expect real changes until this generation has effectively moved on into history. It will take another generation that never knew Reagan or the Cold War to appreciate the need for a more collectivist and humanistic ethos to withstand the challenges of a increasingly crowded, warmer planet and a savage globalized economy.
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What a great article. Mr Manjoo is absolutely correct, we are all in this together whether we like it or not. You will not be protected by your gated community, cache of face masks or private planes. We need effective mitigation steps including paid sick leave, school lunches even when schools are closed and access to healthcare not limited by costs. This virus has the potential for staggering costs in human terms that will be born by all of us. We need to position our society to weather this storm and the ones to come in the future.
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I think the Republicans becomes Socialists in times like these both for the appearance of concern for the worker (politics!) and - and here’s the real reason - because it affects corporate profits and the stock market. I’m not so extreme: of course we need a strong economy and need to have policies and institutions that support it, but we also need to provide for the general welfare, the basic health and every day needs of people (not just workers - how does a payroll tax deduction help gig economy workers, day laborers, etc???). Let’s find a balance.
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This situation is uniquely different than ‘normal’ in that medical status of individuals do not normally affect other people. Here, they do and therefore to protect me and my family I am willing to bear the extraordinary costs associated with this generosity. I see no reason not to go back to the status quo when things improve. Are you ready to bail out all the homeowners who bought shore homes vulnerable to hurricanes and flooding and now climate change related dangers? Same issue, why should I bear the costs of your self imposed misfortune. I do believe there needs to better subsistence level medical for all in the US (which I’ll help pay for via taxes), but not willing to add the socialist gold plating.
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@Ace
"medical status of individuals do not normally affect other people"
Alas, thinking that is precisely what's wrong.
You should at least recognize that it affects others in terms of cost, even in "normal" times. This health crisis is a wake-up call, or it should be, that we are all in this together: your health (and not just its cost) affects us all.
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Great piece! I know the collective thought in our society only seems to empty shelves in stores and not change our ideas. But I am hopeful that something as non partisan as a virus can actually change society. The plague ended feudalism.
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Companies voluntarily offering their employees paid sick leave is the opposite of socialism; it is the market adjusting to demand (in this case, the demands of the worker). If anything, this would be an argument on why government intervention is not needed to take care of the worker. The companies that are offering paid sick leave are doing so because it is going to be used as a recruiting/retention tool, verses being a detriment. Before this pandemic, there was little attention on this issue, so workers did not base their employment decisions on it. Now, many employees are looking at it as an important part of their overall compensation. Unfortunately, everything has to be net neutral, so it is likely this will either result in lower wages or a slowdown/reduction in future wage increases.
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@Bill I stopped believing employer based health insurance was the way to go after the 2007 crash. At the time I worked for a small import company that provided health insurance to its employees. Come the downturn, the owner decided employees would start paying half of the premium, taken from the first of the months paycheck. This was supposed to be a temporary measure, until things improved. However, shortly after the policy was implemented, it was revealed the owner was spending tens of thousands of dollars on antique columns, and shipping them to his vacation property to build a yoga platform. This, coupled with other insulting behavior/attitudes towards the employees that actually did the work, induced me to leave. Employer provided healthcare is a second rate system, as it depends on the whims of management. The United States is the only developed nation that doesn’t recognize and provide some form of basic universal healthcare for its citizens. This means American workers are not competing with the rest of the world on a level playing field. Our healthcare system must change.
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@Bill
Companies are doing it now because of the crisis. They don't do it usually because it is very costly and could drive them out of business. You can't be profitable (or break even) if you are paying people not to work.
If anything, this crisis is evidence that the United States needs health insurance for everyone
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Thank you Mr. Manjoo for penning these thoughts. Yes, there is nothing like a crisis of survival to wipe away distraction, ideological purity, or dissonance of thought. I am cautiously optimistic that once the COVID-19 pandemic has ebbed that it will be instructive in bolstering the safety net. I guess hope springs eternal.
As you noted, it often takes catastrophic events to create the seismic shift in political will. When I think about the creation of the FDA, Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, VA, unionized labor, food stamps, etc., these were all preceded by flagrant corruption and abuses of the social contract too shocking to ignore. Still, the creation of these institutions met terrific headwinds in their day with smears of socialism or communism.
My sincerest fear of the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic is that it could become a repeat of the Depression and Great Recession in that the chaos will result in more loss of equity from the working class. Homes foreclosed on by loss of income will be scooped up for pennies on the dollar and further the consolidation of income inequality. The result may not be a passive acquiescence by the working class. They may create an alternative economy in cash and other value that mirrors what evolved in Greece and eventually choked the central government coffers from a loss in tax revenue due to black market economies thriving on their own. After COVID-19, we may all have a different take on what it takes to survive.
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My employer is a major railway company. It has just released its Covid 19 action plan which states that, if employees have travelled to Class 3 designated virus zones, something strongly advised against, they will be obliged, on return, to self quarantine for fourteen days and that this “administrative leave” will be unpaid and their return to work must be approved by the company. Non compliance with this policy will result in potential termination of employment for cause.
I can understand the self quarantine rule as common sense, but for it to be unpaid is execrable. The president and CEO of this company makes $20,000,000 per annum, anointing him among even the elite in Canada. The Board of Directors make proportionate incomes too. In past months, the company has suffered ten fatalities in accidents caused by heavily eroded safety standards, four of my friends and colleagues in this terminal alone, a number so far outstripping the total number of coronavirus deaths in Canada. There is a scandal brewing about the suppression of an accident investigation that killed three crew members in a single event.
Profit and greed are a virulent contagion less biological than Covid 19, yet far more pervasive. Employers and governments should contribute to a scheme that will compensate affected workers without financial penalty while this crisis is managed. I think there’s room in the $7 billion profit margin for this company alone to handle that.
We’re in this together.
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For months now or actually since 2015-16 the NYT has made it clear that Bernie is crazy and his policies just can't work.
BUT the fuzzy sort of "medicare for all" you and others are calling for in this crisis can work and does work in many, many other developed nations.
We desperately need some form of universal health coverage for all citizens; and help with education, child and elder care wouldn't hurt either!
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“...... it turns out we might have built the entire edifice upon layers and layers of unaccounted-for risk, because we forgot to assign a value to the true measure of a nation’s success — the well-being of its population.”
Can you imagine what the US would look like if Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc. didn’t exist? If all healthcare was privatized and you got only what you could afford? Low wage workers, with no or inadequate benefits, would be dropping like flies. Medical bankruptcies would skyrocket. A civil society needs a certain amount of institutionalized “love they neighbor - Good Samaritan” protection for the least among us. It’s not simply “coerced benevolence”, it’s vital for the economy and civility. Indeed, let’s hope companies and lawmakers don’t forget the value of a strong social safety net when this crisis passes.
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@Jim
"If all healthcare was privatized and you got only what you could afford?"
And why stop with healthcare? Fire departments, food inspection, public education, prisons, police, and all the rest.
Those on the Right truly believe that privatization is the answer. Private security, prisons, schools,... the whole 9 yards.
Is it insanity? From a society point of view, yes, of course. From an individualist, capitalist point of view, it's perfectly rational.
Different classes have different interests, and (when conscious) different points of view.
I sure hope Joe Biden will read this and join those calling for these much needed changes.
We want OUR TURN now to live our lives without the debilitating struggle and stress that governments in other countries have managed to eliminate. Yes cradle to grave support to live full, happy lives while free to contribute our talents, enjoy time with family and friends in the short time we are here! What’s the problem with that?
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“The virus has laid bare our greatest vulnerability: We’ve got the world’s biggest economy and the world’s strongest military, but it turns out we might have built the entire edifice upon layers and layers of unaccounted-for risk, because we forgot to assign a value to the true measure of a nation’s success — the well-being of its population.”
With all due respect to your fine article, which I found bracing and important, I don’t think we forgot about the importance of the well-being of our population. We ignored it.
Those who benefitted from the lack of public policy toward that end only care for profit and made decisions based on the expendability of hourly workers. The majority of elected officials who could have addressed the exploitation of such workers did not consider them an important constituency.
Now we see a capitulation based on a silent recognition of the importance of the work these citizens do, and how their work has created obscene wealth for the fortunate few. When the crisis is over, they will resume the usual exploitation unless there is a major shift in the kind of people we elect to represent us.
A pandemic would be a great place to start, excess wealth can buy a lot of things, but illness is impervious to its allure.
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@Margo Stone
"I don’t think we forgot about the importance of the well-being of our population. We ignored it."
We as a society dismissed it. Which is another way of saying that those in power denied it, and the rest of us didn't raise a big enough fuss to take control of this.
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Thank you for putting a voice to how I feel about this. In Europe I would be a center left voter. In this country I'm seen as revolutionary because I backed Warren/Sanders platforms. We know the myth of the lone innovator, and the "pulled up by bootstraps" are just that - myths - and yet the myth American individualism always seems to trump acting as a community.
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@RAQ
I like Bill Clinton's quote : "Even bugs take care of each other"
2
The Trump administration has been at war on “Obamacare,” Medicaid, Medicare, and public health programs in general under the banner of making Americans more self-reliant/less reliant on Democratic programs that help everyone. This administration has rendered itself less able to address the twin crises of contagion and recession than any administration since Hoover’s. It will be up to the individual states to take the needed public health measures that our federal government is too paralyzed to exercise. Unfortunately, state governments lack the economic tools to address a recession. The key body in this crises is the Senate majority. Can Senate Republicans rise from their supine cower and confront Trump, or has subservience become irrevocably permanent?
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@Fred Frahm
"Can Senate Republicans rise from their supine cower and confront Trump, or has subservience become irrevocably permanent?"
Hahahahahahahaha. Senate Republicans represent the same moneyed interests - the same class. It's not like they're ignorant; they're opposed. Different classes, different politics.
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Author seems to gloss over the distinction between voluntary corporate munificence and mandatory (socialist) policies, between what are fundamentally investments made at shareholder expense and what would be additional government programs funded by taxpayers and managed by bureaucracies.
All of these strike me as examples where companies decided, for whatever business reasons (PR, practicality, long-term benefit), to voluntarily contribute towards these benefits for their workforce. The fact that they have done so in the absence of a (socialist) government mandate could even be viewed as supporting the case that such mandates are not required (although I suppose the left-leaning NYT readership is unlikely to take this view). But we shouldn't jump to conclude that corporate management has all suddenly become socialist. They have taken these actions for pragmatic reasons and are unlikely to have changed their overarching philosophy of government and the economy overnight.
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@UWSer: In the corporatists world doing good is permitted if and only if the “stockholders’ interests” are the primary motivation. The United States is not M&M Enterprises in which “everyone has a share.” The shares are owned primarily not by all persons but by economic entities that do not have corporal bodies, but who can and do exercise influence on public policy. It is in government in a nominal democracy that the people’s interests can and should control over the corporatists’ “shareholder’s interests.” Our Constitution made our common welfare the predominant concern, not “shareholders’ interests.”
3
Medicare for All or Military for All? We can't afford both. We have to decide if by "national security" we mean the health and well being of the US population, or not.
We can prioritize OUR health care needs or we can prioritize support for despotic regimes in the Middle East and elsewhere.
We can prioritize OUR health care needs or we can fight hopeless wars in other countries.
We can prioritize OUR health care needs or we can continue to expand the world's largest military.
We choose. I'm not optimistic.
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When I used to work for the phone company many years ago, we installers spent most of our days going in and out of people's apartments and houses in all kinds of weather and in all different kinds of neighborhoods, rich and poor. I used to get two bad colds a year; one in the summer and one in the winter. (Since I retired, I never get colds.) Back then the Company allowed six paid absences a year (including women installers/repairmen,er, repair-persons). We often endured forced overtime for extended periods (like months), which added to our stress. I wonder how things are being handled there now. I sure hope that management has gotten the word: this is a serious crisis for everybody, not just profits.
(PS I'm SO glad that I retired!)
2
I am not holding my breath. It is infuriating that the response to this health crisis is the same failed response that was trotted out during the last financial crisis: lower interest rates and tax cuts. At first, one may think that this is outright foolishness, till you realize that this is intentional. This will once again help the wealthiest (cheaper borrowing, easy money, less tax, etc.) while gutting the working- and middle-class. What is desperately needed is
(a) a competent and coherent medical response, which seems to be sorely lacking, and,
(b) an economic response that helps people rather than financial entities.
I heard some Democrats proposing mailing checks to everyone to help keep them afloat (Andrew Yang's UBI doesn't sound so crazy anymore, eh?). This would help but I don't believe Mitch and his gang will allow that.
And I'm waiting for the conspiracy theories (if they are not already out there) saying Democrats actually perpetrated this to hurt Trump and push their liberal agenda.
12
What the epidemic has revealed is the truly awful safety net available to a vast swath of the American workforce. Corporations have been exposed as to how meager their benefits are, and to what extent they exploit the lowest paid employees. It also exposes the national policies held by the current ruling class - lack of affordable child care, lack of oversight and regulation of facilities that care for the vulnerable elderly, lack of investment and preparedness in our public health systems, all the while piling on tax break after tax break for the corporate class. While my brain tells me that the suffering of large corporations may ultimately adversely impact their workers, part of me doesn't feel sorry for companies like Darden who exploited their workforce for years. And how about all those restaurant employees whose guaranteed wage is often less than $5 an hour - the rest to be made up by tips. If you can't work, getting a guaranteed of $3.25 an hour from these places is pretty cold comfort. These people are still going to suffer greatly if they cannot work, even if the get "paid" time off. It's time we as citizen take this opportunity to hold our political representatives feet to the fire and demand more than a temporary fix - we need systemic changes in our social safety net that benefit the average American. Our economy and society will be stronger in the long term.
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@dairyfarmersdaughter: You speak the truth. It is easy to fire the often-ill employee, even if a disability is involved. It is sad and disturbing to see ill employees struggling to continue working while sick. On the bottom rung, where sick leave or any approved leave and medical benefits must be earned by attendance or promotion to full-time, there is no rest and recuperation for the weary. This makes all of us vulnerable.
6
This catastrophe was decades in the making. In addition to dismantling of worker protections, Public Health budgets and systems--which make no sense from an individual profit-seeking perspective--were gutted through neoliberal policies, not just locally, but globally: countries were strong-armed into slashing these budgets and adapting wholesale neoliberal policies: hence the vast numbers of zoonotic diseases--and their casualties--we have seen in recent years.Systems for prevention, early intervention, global treatment, untethered to market priorities; robust workers' rights; and the fundamental valuing of human life over profit are necessary to avert this catastrophe.
In 2000, the prescient biomathematician and ecologist Richard Levins asked the question: "Is Capitalism a Disease". https://tinyurl.com/rf8mwz4
We know the answer.
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@ACH Obama was President in January of 2017. He served the previous 8 years. Nobody ever mentions his name.
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The problem with big government programs that they usually grow ever larger, more wasteful, and inefficient, regardless of conditions. They then crowd out private investment, reduce personal savings, and stifle innovation. Contrary to the opinion of this op-ed, we should aim to expand programs during a crisis but shrink them when such spending is not needed. This rarely happens.
1
You could just as well be describing many corporations. They get big and inefficient and wasteful, they crowd out competitors, and don’t pay people enough to save.
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@Dan that is true, but the solution is not necessarily to replace them with government. Competing private businesses can and do replace complacent incumbents all the time. Often this phenomenon is criticized by liberal media who focus more on cultural or social aspects than on trends towards greater efficiency in various businesses (e.g., Barnes and Noble and then Amazon replacing traditional booksellers).
2
@Dan. Monopolies distort the economy. But short of that, and I would say we are short of that in most sectors, there is a self-correcting mechanism: competition. If a company provides poor value for its goods and services it eventually gets run out business by competitors. When a government entity provides poor value, it simply asks for a bigger budget.
1
Somebody may have already pointed this out, but:
“When we tell people, ‘If you’re sick, stay home,’ the president has tasked the team with developing economic policies that will make it very, very clear that we’re going to stand by those hard-working Americans,” Vice President Mike Pence said on Monday"---
He doesn't say, or even necessarily imply, that "standing by those hard-working Americans" means paying them for sick leave. Very easy to say, accurately, "I/he never said that."
6
You certainly don't model your healthcare system over a rare and novel event like this, the first I've seen in the USA in my lifetime. Emergency benefits from government seem fine to deal with emergencies, but you don't normalize the unusual.
2
That’s not the point. The point is that an emergency highlights the problem that is happening every day at a lower level of intensity.
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@David read Population Bomb or any similar work. This Pandemic was predicted decades ago, and with climate change, globalization and overpopulation, more pandemics will follow with increasing frequency.
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@David
On the contrary, that's exactly what you're supposed to do. Just like the building code on the West Coast (including you, Seattle), is written to withstand severe earthquakes that are rare, so should the healthcare system.
It boggles the mind that adults can be this stupid and narrow minded.
6
The safety net has to start with the most economically vulnerable women.
Take care of women, and they will take care of everything else.
2
Great essay! Please continue to publish support for Federally required paid sick leave at every opportunity. A general payroll tax reduction (currently being considered by the Trump administration) will not target assistance to those who fall ill and who need it the most. Since legislation will take time, large companies, that do not already do so, should immediately implement paid sick leave to all employees. This will send an important signal of support for paid sick leave throughout the broader workforce.
4
Here we had a chance, a chance to get ahead of this disease. All the way back in January, people started testing positive. The government didn’t listen to researchers and physicians. The Office of Pandemic Prevention was squashed in 2018 by the trump administration. We’re not talking hindsight. They knew and they didn’t act. It was like disposing all fire extinguishes and turning off the security alarms. What else was that office’s responsibility? Nothing. Just to try to keep us safe from a disease, not knowing this one, but knowing something’s is sure to come down the pike.
This is an unqualified administration. Our only saving grace are the career men and women in the CDC, the physicians and nurses, the first responders, who tend to us as best as they can under these circumstances.
In November, God willing, let us get this terrible administration out of Washington.
16
No surprise.
Whenever the oxymoronic predictable/inevitable black swan event occurs -- like a housing bubble popping or a global pandemic -- daring capitalists and masters of the financial universe are often the first in line to demand that we socialize risk while continuing to privatize profits.
But as any insurance company will tell you: if you want to share and protect against risk you MUST pay up front -- you can't get insurance after the fact.
The safety net is essentially a collective insurance policy against bad luck (job loss ...), unexpected events (illnesses ...), and even the inevitable ( growing old ... ). Self-insurance only works for the very wealthy and large corporations. And we see even that has limits when things get ugly. Only government can get this done.
It's past time we demand that we (including corporations) collectively pay for a strong safety net and robust preparation upfront through taxes and cover everyone.
24
Who can argue with this column? As Rahm said, don’t let a crisis go to waste. And keeping workers at their job doesn’t violate any conservative principles. But I still remember a fellow worker who converted a small on job injury to two months off with workmen’s comp while he built a house.
1
I share your lack of optimism because this is the moment when we would expect more people to be favoring the one candidate whose policies could prepare us for future pandemics and yet, Joe Biden seems to be winning.
8
"Ephemeral" is the key word in this column. In this instance and in this country, all that concern will evaporate once the immediate threat has subsided. America has not had a strong historical record of caring for the less fortunate in society, preferring the wealth evangelicals outlook that the misfortune is the fault of the individual. As such, American society will revert back to its mean (deliberate pun) once the coronavirus has run it's course.
15
But only companies are ever hit with circumstances beyond their control.
Individuals just want "free stuff".
20
The coronavirus crisis politically threatens the Trump presidency in two ways:
1) It unites all of American society (and world society), undoing Trump's long-standing efforts to divide those societies.
2) It provides a golden opportunity for the news media to prove its worth to society by providing citizens with accurate, useful public health information.
228
@Observer Eventually this article mentions what we're all feeling, that this epidemic is but a mild preview of the coming effects of the climate disruption.
The unity of the nation has a new disruption, the grave frustration of those who relied on a decent and fair future through Sanders. It will become apparent soon enough that Biden is in the service of the so called deep corporate state.
In the way that our medical services industry is in effect a subsidiary of the insurance industry, so the news media business is a subsidiay of the advertising industry. We separate state from church to not distort politics in that way, likewise, we first need separation of news from advertising to avert distortion of that.
10
@Observer More importantly, it tanks the economy which is all the GOP ever runs on. That's the real stake through the heart of those bloodsuckers. A nice global recession will do wonders for eliminating the GOP entirely in the Fall.
13
@Epictetus I do not agree at all that Biden is "is in the service of the so called deep corporate state," nor do I believe that the current, leftward-moved Democratic Party would allow such a thing.
8
Sadly, today the people in our country have the attention span of a gnat. The coronavirus continues to make headlines because it stands as a personal threat and is growing in impact, not declining. When the coronavirus epidemic finally ends, people will forget about it in a hot minute -- and the social safety net as well. History will repeat itself as it always does.
133
@ALB
Sadly, you’re correct. Trump is only sounding compassionate because the virus attacks Trumpistas. Even though so many other things he’s done also harm his base, they either don’t know it or give him a pass because “he knows what he’s doing”’ E.g. farmers and tariffs.
This, too, shall pass, ant Trump and the Republicans will blame victims for being lazy and worthless.
10
@ALB If we take history as an example, there seems to be a breaking point for most people. A lot of the New Deal programs were a product of the Great Depression where the vast majority were in severe economic hardship. My family resorted to foraging, finding edible weeds to keep themselves fed. Those programs where possible because people were miserable. It seems like things have to get bad before they can change.
9
@ALB you or absolutely right, the American public has the attention span of a nat. When I meet a person for the first time my initial opinion of them is very low, I proceed with the meeting in the hope that they will prove me wrong.
1
Privatize the profits, socialize the losses. American wealth and power have been playing this game for most of our country's history. It's worked well for a few, not so good for the environment or for everyday working people.
It is nice to see this trend acknowledged in part in the Times.
357
@CSP Without profits, you'd have nothing to tax to socialize the losses, which sounds cute, but is just what you expect in a safety net.
3
@David
There are plenty of large companies making massive profits and not paying the appropriate taxes, therefore they do not support social programs. If I understand your logic, I believe it is faulty.
23
@David Same old tired pronouncements people like to make, eg. bailout was socialism for rich corporations. No it wasn't. No one should have been bailed out but the government did not pay billions to auto companies and banks for free. It was in exchange for equity and most of it has been sold for a small profit. I am for public option but the incompetence shown by WH and CDC is evidence that we cannot turn over all responsibilities to the government.
3
Why do we insist on calling the use of public money for the public good “socialism”? President Eisenhower used taxpayer money to replace the country’s tangle of poorly maintained roads with the interstate highway system. If he were the President today and proposed such a system, would we label him a socialist? It’s very likely that some people would, arguing that bad roads are essential to our rugged independence and can-do ability to avoid potholes.If we could persuade our fellow citizens to view universal healthcare the way they view I-75 or I-20, they might understand that using public money for the public good does not deprive us of freedom. Instead, such use enhances our freedom.
464
@Drusilla Hawke :
Conservatives believe if there is no government, private businesses would do everything government does, and better. Just because it never happened in the world is not a reason to believe it cannot happen in the USA.
61
@Drusilla Hawke , I agree with you. In the US, "socialism" has become a catch-all label for anything having to do with government involvement in just about anything. One cannot even carry on an intelligent conversation about it. Socialist ideas came out of 19th century Europe, and some of those ideas, or at least the spirit of them, have made their way into European consciousness. Not so in the US, where most people -- especially the ones who use the term the most -- have no understanding of the real history of socialism and socialist thought -- as opposed to the bastardized versions appropriated by dictatorships that have gotten virtually all of the attention.
51
@Drusilla Hawke It's socialism when you take over private business via government business, which M4A clearly is. Sick pay, not so much. Government is supposed to provide a safety net, but not a daily net that we're all ensnared in.
5
Kudos for this insightful piece. It really does go to the heart of the concept of a just and compassionate society. It is unfortunate that our myth of rugged individualism, self-elevation by our "bootstraps" and present economic model demands short term profits and return on investments still stands in opposition to a more permanent comprehensive societal model is something that the American ethos enshrines.
65
These kinds of measures are what labor unions historically protected
264
@Wiseatron
...which is of course why companies are working so hard to eradicate them.
17
@Wiseatron Only in the last century or so. My grandfather was a "pioneer" of the International Garment Workers Union from the 1910s on. Before that, workers were pretty much at the mercy of employers.
4
The coronavirus has us believing we are all in the same boat and we are taking on water. It is time for everyone to start bailing or start swimming.
We are all in the same boat. It's called planet Earth. Now just 42 days away from Earth Day 2020, we might look up from our cache of prepper supplies, put down the Purell and think a bit about fixing the leaking boat carrying us all through space.
There is no Planet B.
316
@Doug McNeill
actually we are not in the same boat, like it or not. These who have money and power are on a different and much larger and sturdy boat drinking champagne while watching us on the Titanic approaching form the distance. In some occasions, line in 1789 (France) or 1917 (Russia) the Titanic hit the larger boat and both sunk with most hands on board. There is Planet B and it is for those on the Titanic.
2
I am so glad you wrote this piece. It does comfort me a little to see companies attempting to step up and do the right thing, though so far, our actual government’s plans aren’t particularly helpful. But, as commenter Claire, noted, quoting Bernie, “we shouldn’t have to depend on the generosity of billionaires.” This public health crisis does provide us with the opportunity to move the needle towards universal health care, something we should have had decades ago. But at what cost?
169
@Minmin To add on to your first comment, I'm not sure why there is such little coverage on Trump's meeting with health insurance executives yesterday, resulting in them promising zero copays for testing (and certain other items) for COVID-19. I believe the costs of tests being an impediment was a big concern over the past few weeks.
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/486816-pence-major-health-insurers-have-agreed-to-waive-copays-for-coronavirus
3
@hesitant And the $3K cost of an emergency room visit to get the test?
3
@hesitant --You are correct that Trump met with health care executives and I am grateful that some plans were hashed out. However, in a public health crisis of this magnitude there should have been no question that this would happen. And yes, as Martin Kreitman below writes, will that also cover the emergency room visit?
2
As long as health care is tied to an insurance program funded by corporations and controlled by corporations, it will always be a cudgel with which workers will be threatened with. There is no daylight between republican job requirements for social services and their resistance to health care, day care and education for Americans. The Puritans who insist on the no work no bread mantra have ruled us for too long. Our so called free society is enslaved in many ways to the industrial revolution where the bosses need wage slaves to fund their private jets and million dollar condos.
304
@Zeke27
FDR's four freedom's speech pretty well sums it up. We have already dropped the ball.
9
@Zeke27 Sadly, it was government law that coerced businesses to provide what should have been your private health care. They break free markets and then claim free markets are living up to some standard they are blocked from achieving.
2
@David Your idea of "free markets" is an Ayn Rand-ish fantasy. A market doesn't work without government regulation. Period. If you do some reading, you might learn something. Maybe start with the basics, like governments making it illegal for the folks who sell apples to put their thumbs on the scale when they were weighing the apples.
8
Remember that old saying, "There are no atheists in foxholes"?
"Fix me up, doc". When people are sick, whether they are socialist or libertarian, this is all they want. As a doctor, I learned this over 45 years ago. Somehow, politics and money fade into the background when someone is truly ill. They just want to live.
And, they expect care. That they made a choice to destroy Obamacare and forego insurance three weeks before getting sick is of no matter to them. A doctor learns early that the patient with a MAGA hat on his head, no insurance, and an arterial blood clot in the leg is not inclined to discuss the hypocrisy of his politics.
They want and expect care in a crisis. That there is a medical and societal network to support them in a crisis is truly a manifestation of socialism, but it is also a manifestation of a moral societal response, that life is precious.
558
@Bill Virginia Nothing is really free. Are Americans willing to pay the tax rates citizens in Denmark and other social democracies pay in order to achieve the same results?
That is the question.
29
@Jeff True, there are no atheist in a fox hole, but not because an atheist would become a god believer in a fox hole, but because atheist don't fight wars for corporate interests. So basically every war since WWII, has been a corporate war for money. No atheist would risk their life for greedy money people. There is no purpose to it.
14
@Bill Virginia
Look to the insurance companies for the answer to your question. We could pay the doctors the same as they are getting now and still knock offover 1/3 of the costs of care , which goes to the insurers, who contribute NOTHING to the actual care.
30
"Because the virus is coldly indiscriminate and nearly inescapable, it leaves us all, rich and poor, in the same boat: The only way any of us is truly protected is if the least among us is protected."
Is it now that the 1% and corporations discovered us and that our health and economic well being is also important?
7
It takes an epidemic of a highly contagious disease to show the intricacy of our interconnectedness and interdependence. For those wavering but hopefully thinking "independent",this epidemic should give them clarity on the right side of politics -- Republican or Democrats.
The problem with us human beings is that not only is selfishness our default state, we are often irrational or downright non-thinking. How do we know our own ignorance an delusion?
More fundamental than the lack of sick leave and healthcare access is our lack of clear and critical thinking. We have free speech that spew garbage. We have free agents who act against their own interests. Why? If this virus doesn't kill us, our ignorant and deluded minds will.
5
@Doodle
"The problem with us human beings is that not only is selfishness our default state"
No. It takes a particular kind of society to emphasize individuality at such an extreme. It's not inherent in some presumed "human nature". Human nature is always specific to a particular society - real humans in real relations.
Our society, based on our wild-west version of capitalism, has as its motto "Everyone for themself, and the devil take the hindmost."
I'm not so sure I'd say we've turned "socialist." What I see is plenty of selfishness going on. The hoarding of food and supplies? Store shelves bare in every state, as people rush to stock up for who knows what exactly? What I see is a populace ready to shove everybody else out of the way to save themselves. And, anyone with the slightest cough or who sneezes in public immediately becomes suspect and a pariah. There's no socialism going on here. It's the beginning of every man for himself, don't get in my way, survival of the fittest stuff. And, scary besides.
4
I've been saying this for the last few weeks! I see it in our local paper (where we have lots of international travelers), people who are Republican (or Libertarian, which is the same are R.) complain about government's response. It makes me go crazy!
4
We have a very short memory in America. COVID-19 will have to be devastating- millions infected, tens of thousands dead - for the country to do anything meaningful to protect Americans. Even then it won’t be sufficient. Republicans will see to that.
8
I haven’t even read the column yet but I can assert, based on current reality, that many people in this country would rather go hungry, do without healthcare, allow companies to self regulate, and do without sick leave or vacations than allow others to get care or benefits they feel are undeserved or free.
14
Actually, anyone who walks or rides on a public road or freeway, avails herself of the local police or fire departments, checks out a book from the library, is protected by the military, or benefits from social security or Medicare, is a socialist. In short, anyone who takes advantage of public anything—in or out of the midst of a pandemic—is also a socialist.
11
@Steve Griffith
Yup. This.
A silly straw man argument. Nobody is against the government intervening in times of extremis. Another interpretation of the actions seen so far is that businesses on their own will do the right thing when it is called for, no progressive revolution needed. At a time when Germany is anticipating up to 2/3 of the population being infected and Italy is on lockdown,; and when treatments for COVID are likely to come from the private sector (not Denmark), the idea that “progressive government” is the solution simply isn’t supported by the facts to date.
2
Thank you for this, Farhad. How ironic that in the same week we see a bipartisan and corporate scramble to mitigate exploitation of vulnerable and sick people...and the seeming defeat of Sanders and Warren and, by proxy, Medicare for All.
6
If only we had enacted Bernie's program of Medicare for all and paid sick leave before the crisis
5
A very good column but an unfortunate headline. Not to be pedantic, but social welfare arrangements and health benefits are not “socialism.” To conflate them in that manner is to adopt right wing talking points. Admittedly, U.S. left wing critics of (small-l) liberal democracy like the DSA have of late taken to making the same claims in order to puff themselves, but it is nevertheless inaccurate both as history and as political science.
What is variously called, reform liberalism, welfare statism, social democracy, accepts and embraces the full Enlightenment liberal package, including free market capitalism and limits on state capacity and powers. It do not seek transformation of society to a new Socialist order, but rather to make the current capitalist economy more humane, efficient, and sustainable.
As a matter of history, such programs were created by liberals to address the shortcomings of free markets so criticized by Socialists and therefore preempt Socialism, but also (in many count, though not the U.S.) by Democratic Socialists as a strategy to “whet the appetite” of the public for genuine transformation. This later strategy was decried by critics on the right as “creeping socialism” and used in attempts to delegitimize reforms. Also, the strategy failed utterly, as populations with strong social safety nets (a liberal term Socialist were very critical of) like Scandinavian countries, continued to embrace robust capitalism and reject Socialm.
4
It's typical of leftists to conflate unrelate concepts in order to encourage lazy readers to accept their assertions without thinking about them.
There is a world of difference between social programs, and socialism.
Social programs would be one element of mitigating the economic and social effects of the coronavirus epidemic.
Socialism is an intellectually bankrupt political philosophy that has proved to be a disaster everywhere that it has been implemented.
1
Bait and switch corporations.
Above all, profits over people.
4
Keep saying it! Time to trust the scientists.
We are all in this together.
Seems a lot like a trial run on global climate damage.
5
The late and great writer Gore Vidal once called us "The United States of Amnesia".
So it goes.
4
"What if the virus forces Americans... to recognize the strength of a collectivist ethos?" This has already happened long ago. It's the foundation stone of slavery, Jim Crow, and persistent racism. It's what drives white conservatives to want to seal the borders hermetically; to gut social welfare programs; and to elide and eradicate what they think of as congenitally poor and lazy groups. It would be delusional to think that the likes of Steve King or Donald Trump will ever see a fellow-human in anyone with a brown skin.
7
Of course everybody is on board with helping out workers, regardless where the policy maker resides on the political spectrum. It is an election year!! All policy options, regardless how "socialist" they might appear, are viable in the interest of being (re)elected. However, NONE of these options even come close to "socialized medicine," and I wish writers, including this reporter, would stop using the term as it applied to the U.S. (and even the Canadian) healthcare system. The country's doctors and nurses and other healthcare professionals are not employees of the government (unlike in the UK). Healthcare facilities, with the exception of VA hospitals, are not owned by the government; so the state does not own the means of "production". Perhaps if we keep using and applying correct terminology in every instance then the most ignorant of NYT readers will finally understand the distinctions between different healthcare systems.
1
Uh no. I don’t need the government to tell me how long to was my hands or not to cough in other peoples’ faces.
1
politicizing a pandemic is deplorable
3
Ain’t going to happen for a life time. Mitch McConnell instilled vast numbers of far-right ultra conservative white Christian nationalist judges on the federal courts. These guys will not give an inch for social justice.
6
And there are no atheists on the battlefield? Think again.
2
GOP, then - "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are I'm from the Government and I'm here to help"
Ronald Reagan
GOP, now - "The government is your enemy until you need a friend" Former Senator William Cohen (R-ME)
2
When China sealed Wuhan, a city of 11 million, and Hupei, a province of 59 million, what did NYT and Western media took as lesson for us other than self congratulation of our democracy and governance, hope China will collapse this time, and arrogance bordering on negligence of superiority of Western medicine. We laugh at the stupidity of some bureaucratic incompetence and daily sightseeing of the drama occurring there indifferent to the suffering and sacrifice.
Now China has controlled the virus and factories are reopening and returning to normal while we are seeing the lessons not learned here. One patient in New Rochelle infected the whole mile stretch of city infecting not only his neighbors and family, but stopping the commerce way beyond on 2 hospitals and the staffs there. He was undiagnosed for 4 days with coronavirus when China already told everyone who pays attention what the symptoms and CAT scan looks like. The medical staffs here unprotected didn't bother to read about the literature published yet Pompeo complained about the non transparency of China on Coronavirus. One Uber driver caused 40 medical staff in Far Rockaway to go into quarantine because they didn't think it will happen here. The arrogance and recklessness.
5
Or put another way: everyone’s a libertarian except when they’re quarantined at home
3
Please, substitute New Deal Democrat for the word Socialist, or at the very least provide your personal definition to your use of the word because everyone means something different when they use it.
2
There are no atheists in foxholes and no free-market extremists in a pandemic.
3
Very good column. For once I didn't have to roll my eyes at Farhad Manjoo's "woke-ness."
Keep it up—much appreciated!
1
It's been said that Corona is exposing different countries' weaknesses. For China, it was their secretiveness and unwillingness to admit fault. For the US, its clearly our doctrinaire adherence to certain libertarian tendencies that viruses have not cooperated with.
But yes, its vaguely amusing how former staunchly ideological libertarians are now seeing the light regarding universal healthcare and other "socialist" policies that they didn't want to pay for. It turns out that communicable disease doesn't care about your politics.
But we shouldn't be too optimistic here. The right only cares about this because they don't want to get sick from people they've otherwise forced to work while sick. And they are suddenly interested in bailouts as long as they can benefit - their adherence to free markets ends at their doorstep.
It otherwise puts lie to their "principles," which they are happy to apply to others, with different rules for themselves.
6
In the meantime, Donald Trump's response to the epidemic is to try to undermine Social Security by cutting payroll taxes (which, incidentally, would make next to no difference to wage earners because the amounts would be so small, and would do no good for people who aren't getting paid).
14
"...because we forgot to assign a value to the true measure of a nation’s success — the well-being of its population."
The Republicans whose long stranglehold on government has crippled the pandemic response have not forgotten to assign this value. As evidenced by their actions, they simply don't consider the well-being of Americans to be of value.
12
One of the hallmarks of America is that we never ever think things through and never ever plan for the future.
All of this - all of these lovely "perks" (the very fact that we see them as "perks" says a lot!) like paid sick leave, and flexible work hours - will be quickly forgotten and sacrificed on the alter of "job creators" and a strong Wall Street.
It seems obvious that taking care of the least of us would pay dividends for all. It seems obvious that you can build schools or prisons. But if we did that then we couldn't possibly get all of "mine"; we couldn't make sure that I'm "successful" and if you aren't then it's your fault.
No, we have too many problems in this country. None of which - NONE - have not been solved by another nation. But American "exceptionalism" means - we don't do anything the rest of the world does even if it's better.
6
So private employers are freely announcing additional employee benefits they believe are best suited to address a temporary crisis, without being compelled to do so by federal law or regulation. If that is socialism, sign me up.
1
The issue is to rebuild the social safety net. Full Stop. Drop all other value laden terms and make it the campaign cry of Democrats for 2020.
A strong and functioning social safety net benefits all of us and makes us strong and secure as a country. If there is a silver lining in the current health crisis, it is appreciating the value of credible government agencies and the critical service they provide to us all.
This crisis is also the time to show that leaving the majority of our citizens so economically vulnerable weakens our country and our economy.
8
Thanks for identifying the "othering" we are witnessing as the DNC is having reaction to Sanders like a virus. Unfortunately, their system is fighting the wrong thing. The platform that would best address the exploits of global capitalism and its' failure to care for people is being expelled once again. If the DNC has not the sense to pick up some of Sanders - there will be no and little and no energy coming from his supporters - once again. And in the "get rid of Trump/restore decency platform" - this cannot be a good thing. The DNC's "immunity" system could come down with another four years of the Trump virus.
5
"Companies and lawmakers are suddenly realizing the value of a strong social safety net. Let’s hope they don’t forget when the crisis passes."
Nope. This is self-preservation and a morphing of Martin Luther King's famous quote: "socialism for the rich and rugged individualism for the poor."
This is self-preservation with a core of bait and switch for Trump in an election year. Self-preservation for proposing relief for workers who will need to take time off and bait and switch because his proposal, a payroll tax cut for workers, would only work if said worker is actually working and on the payroll. In other words, while the proposal may sound nice to the unsophisticated, it would only take a two-week absence (if that) for them to find out they've been had.
Companies are realizing nothing. They know there is no real safety net and they certainly know that the pay they offer is inadequate in these times of high rents and high health risks. Better for them to have the government step in temporarily than to have to offer money to workers who stay home.
The fair thing to do would be to immediately institute a Universal Basic Income for a set period of time, halt mortgage and other loan repayments, as the Italians have done, and just ask every American to stay home. Coronavirus isn't going to stop until we stop giving it such fertile ground.
So, no. Not everyone is a socialist in a pandemic. They're very far from it.
23
Italy is not at all “teetering”. I am amazed at how quickly lockdowns have been put in place and now, extended to the whole country. Not having left the house for a week (I’m 83), I have just followed the instructions posted everywhere. I avoided the supermarket, walked to a minimarket close by where there was just one customer finishing up. While I was making my choices one or two other people came in, careful to observe the safety distance, both the owner and her one clerk were masked and gloved and they too stood well back. Walking home, a lady stepped off the sidewalk into the street to allow me to pass without our coming too close. Tests have been done in the thousands, for weeks resulting in the high numbers we regrettably see. Anyone who feels ill calls his N.H. Doctor or a call center and follows instructions. There are very few people about, the Italians have tamed their irrepressibility and their ingenuity for flouting authority, at least until we’ve beaten this scourge.
41
I am not a lawyer. But I feel like if these companies can give paid sick time during an emergency, it proves that sick time is a reasonable accommodation. If only a real leader could get this to become a practical outcome of the ADA or a new law to protect workers.
24
@John :
If only voters could realize what is good for them and work to achieve those goals. But... Bread and Circuses...
3
Liberals do not get it.
Conservatives vote for small government, low regulations. low taxes. Red States do not want government in the healthcare business, not insurance, not CDC, not anything. Conservatives know that CDC is not mentioned in the Constitution.
The worst words any American can ever hear, "I'm from the government, and I am here to help."
Liberals will pay the price for trying to help the country fight this virus. Electoral Majority of America simply will not have it.
3
@gratis
This attitude is the problem. Rugged individualism does not work when the economic and political systems are controlled by a few thousand very rich plutocrats who care more for their incomes and wealth than for their fellowehuman beings.
This is why we Americans are being led by the plutocrats to let 68,000 Americans die each year according to the Yale health care study. The virus shows we are indeed all in this together, it does not discriminate among classes, income, races, ethnic groups, or religions. We all must work together if we are to minimize the suffering and deaths from this virus.
6
@gratis Then privatize the highway and road system. Totally government funded and worse, government planned.
Stop subsidies to agriculture and fossil fuel industries, especially to the money losing fracking sector.
Nope, still don't get you.
5
I don't think the author understands the term "socialism" because most of his examples are of private enterprises providing private benefits to its employees. Maybe he should instead realize that not every event needs to fit neatly into his preconceived ideas of how the world should work.
3
@All For Paid Sick Your comment hinged on the technical definition of socialism. We can think of what socialism is in essence by thinking of its opposition. Its opponents think that everybody should get only what they earn themselves. If workers are not working while sick or caring for a sick child, why should they be paid? They weren't working. It is the mind set of not giving anything "free" or "unearned." It always beg the question though, who decides how much one's labor is worth but those holding the capital?
But of course that attitude applies only to the working poor. When businesses are in trouble, it's perfectly okay for them to ask for bail out, like the cruise companies, airlines, hotels etc. are poise to do now.
4
From 2016 to 2020 the idea of Medicare for All is standing stronger and stronger. And it's because of outbreaks like this pandemic that makes people think that it would be better to get taxed a little bit more to live without worrying about surprise medical bills for thousands of dollars. Yes it's good that businesses are trying to help people, the people that work for them but what about the millions of people that don't have insurance that works 2 jobs part time and don't qualify for insurance? They will stay home fearing that hospital care will rack up their debts for thousands. I received a mail from my insurance saying they will cover the tests but what about the hospitalization fees? Oh well I have to deal with it. While the boomer generation gets older, a new younger generation of people that have more difficulties to succeed in life as the inequality grows how realize that universal healthcare isn't a radical idea after all.
7
*now
1
I'm a little disappointed Mr. Manjoo didn't make the explicit connection. Coronavirus is an effect of climate change. Not directly exactly. However, you need to understand warmer climates accelerate the rate of virus mutation. Coronavirus will happen anyway. However, you're going to find diseases like this more often in a warmer climate.
There's also a feedback cycle. More mutations faster means more mutations faster. What we're really afraid of is the proverbial "big one." A virus that spreads quickly but with an incredibly high mortality rate. Something like bubonic plague but with flu-like transmission and a long gestation period. 50-70 percent of the global population is gone along with basically every major city.
Coronavirus fortunately isn't that bad. It's bad but not that bad. However, the virus serves as a friendly reminder to businesses: You do actually need people in order to do business. Jelly of the Month Club doesn't really cut it. Even if Uber had self-driving cars, they would still need employees to service the self-driving cars. If the drivers and technicians can't or won't show up to work, you're out of business.
Nature is reminding corporate America who is really in charge.
7
It’s going to take ‘Socialism’ to stop it. With 50-60% of the population unable to raise $500 in an emergency, there will be many people that forgo the test and infect many others. Or who go to work, when they should realistically stay hom.
With potential bills of $75-100K if they do get sick, the most popular job in America may well be a bankruptcy lawyer.
To avoid almost certain catastrophe, my strong suggestion to limit the spread of the virus and subsequent damage to the economy is the following: The US government shall pay for ALL treatment costs for ANYBODY who believes that they might have the coronavirus. This would include all treatments costs, plus any lost wages. These would be payable at Medicare rates.
If implemented, this program could dramatically reduce the spread of the disease, along with significantly mitigate the economic damage since so many families are much more fragile than anybody believes. It could save Main street from the disease and economic effects, while saving Wall Street in the process.
If you are not worried, then you need to check your pulse…..
13
"If you are not worried, then you need to check your pulse…..". You are so right, but the phenomenal lack of worry or even interest shown in what is transpiring by some folks just goes to show the level to which knowledge, learning and education has seemingly sunk to in this, (literally now) sick nation.
3
@American Expat :
American Exceptionalism, bankruptcy through illness.
Only Americans....
4
Pence announced yesterday that those who have medical insurance can receive free test and free treatment, what happens to those who are without insurance? They are unlikely to seek treatment or test and cannot afford not to go to work when sick. This is where our "great system" fails miserably. I agree that "there’s a good chance we’ll forget the lesson, because this is America, and forgetting working people is just what we do."
Trump's administration also fails American people terribly in terms of preventing the spread of coronavirus. Not only there is not enough test kits, but also not enough face masks for the ill. Yesterday, my sister (who is 72) went to her doctor's office to get her blood test results. There was a man coughing violently in the waiting room, finally, the office gave him a facemask. There are a few things wrong here:
1. My sister could have gotten her test results through the phone. 2. The office should have given the man a facemask right away (it turns out the doctor could not buy more masks, so the office using it sparingly). It is very likely the sick man could not get facemask at all. Now my sister might be exposed to the virus.
All these facts point to that we are so underprepared, not enough facemasks for health care works and sick people. Instead of stigmatizing people who bought and wear facemasks, the government should ramp up the production.
10
Speaking about 'the strength of a collectivist ethos'. It is possible to be a conservative society and even so have a strong collectivst ethos. But it needs a general repositioning of the values. In the Swiss constitution, in the preamble, you can find the following sentence 'in the knowledge that ... the strength of a people is measured by the well-being of its weakest members'. Can you imagine? Not the gross national product, the well-being of its weakest members. And it works.
35
Oh, my. Another virus is upon us. It has taken over the opioid crisis, the mid-east crisis, the climate crisis, etc. The economy crisis is in full swing. The world is a crisis in the making as it always has been. When this virus runs its course, as it surely will, the crisis of the day will return.
1
@Mike except that this crisis can kill you
4
This is a beautiful piece.
Judging from a number of the comments, it seems many Americans would rather risk dying than consider voting for a government that places people over profit, community over individuals.
One way or another, democracy seems to mean we get the government we deserve.
54
@Craig Lucas :
We do not have a democracy. If we did, there would be less guns and more environmental controls. The vast majority of Americans want that, and there is no way they are getting either.
16
If it's the thin end of the wedge and it plays out such that this is what leads to some kind of universalised health care programme, then America may actually save more lives than it loses due to pandemic disease in the long run.
3
This is the moral equivalent of war that Progressives/Leftists thrive on - unity, purpose, and government strength. Woodrow Wilson would be proud. When we get over this crisis, there we will be back to the routine on-going threats. A great man once said never let a good crisis go to waste.
1
Socialism in America?
Not until Americans are aware of corporate control of their lives, every aspect of it.
We are conditioned since the cold war to view it as a us vs. them binary choice. No shades of grey, no nuance.
The real underlying argument against considering humans first?
Capital!
It costs money to care for children, elderly, money that establishment minions have been told to send to tax cuts, subsidizing of polluters, or ordering multiple copies of expensive redundant military hardware.
You are labor, labor costs must be kept low to boost the bottom line in the next quarterly report.
Be realistic.
7
@Robert FL :
'The only good Socialism is Corporate Socialism. Corporate Welfare is a priority for both the GOP and Moderate Dems.
4
Now now, not to worry. (Or be hopeful) As all those moderate Democrats have just let us know, our dueling medical approaches will work just fine. No need to jump off that communist cliff- we want co-pays, high deductibles, in-network requirements. We want high drug prices- drugs made in China. We’re....happy with half measures.
Sick leave, child care concerns? After this virus, we’ll all get back to that, moderate, normal. Electing fighters for a better system? Convincing Republicans that the past wasn’t all that rosy- no, no- moderates will, negotiate, will compromise, will consult their donors....
And you’ve forgotten the cost- why all those other nations with universal health care are just sinking under the burden, on the brink of bankruptcy- probably their low drug costs are some kind of market anomaly.
We are not Denmark. After this minor glitch, moderation will once again rule our corporate country.
10
"...a global epidemic of potentially unprecedented scale and severity..."
This is plain negligence on the part of the press. This is not ebola - it is a virulent flu. We have no good data on how many are infected but not symptomatic. Most of those who have died would have been at risk of death from the flu and we had a fairly mild flu this pat winter.
All that is happening now is the press fanning hysteria and governments acting to look busy so social order is being maintained. Honestly, the press (and social media) IS the enemy of the people on this issue.
3
@QED It is not the flu. It is not an influenza virus. It is a corona virus, a new corona virus that is highly contagious and has a significant fatality risk.
And yes, I wish we have better data, more test kits and a streamlined process to get tested.
31
@QED If the hospital has 10 ventilators and uses 7 of them normally in flu season and we double the number of people who are there for respiratory disease then oh wait, now there are four people without ventilators and now we enter triage.
The issue isn't that the disease is some kind of pneumonic-plague-like 90pc fatality in a day mass killer. The issue is that both coronavirus and flu will overstress limited reserve medical capacity.
17
@QED
Yes, if it were only the U. S. in lockdown I'd say, hmmm, maybe we're overreacting.
But that's not the case. China? Their economy is based predominantly on manufacturing. Why on earth would they shut down production...because they want to look busy fighting disease? Italy? Highly dependent on tourism. They want to shut down their economy because they want to look busy fighting disease?
When what you are saying makes no sense, you should re-evaluate what you're saying.
7
It is simplistic to the point of absurdity to conflate a social safety net with Socialism.
23
@John Wallis :
Absurd? The GOP did it really well.
4
@gratis The GOP currently think Nixon was a Communist, it goes without saying that they conflate the a social safety net with Socialism, everything they say is absurd. However I am refering to the author and the many wanna be progressives who toss the label of Socialism about so casually with no understanding of its actual implications.
2
Corporations have learned nothing. They will provide some sort of sick leave now, for the short term, expect the government to give them a boat load of money and then once the virus receded they will reverse all the policies and people will be back where they were expect that the corporations will have gotten richer. Nothing is changing.
9
@debbie doyle
Corporations learned how to make huge profits out of the misery of American citizens, and make those citizens vote for corporations over and over.
5
Please stop throwing around words like "socialist" and "Denmark." The language has been debased enough already.
7
A government works or it does not. The U.S. government does not.
68
@Casey Jonesed - Except for the Pluto-Corporatocracy that legally and openly buys and pays for Congress Critters.
9
@Casey Jonesed: Unfortunately it does work---for its paymasters. The Pentagon budget remains the biggest government cookie jar in the world. Elections become more and more expensive and the nut of campaign financing resists reform.
10
@Casey Jonesed Do you really believe that? Can we agree that no government is perfect? Mussolini did make the trains run on time. Certainly there are many governments who muddle through in mediocrity. Thank goodness, we have what Trump calls "the deep state"...the professional civil service. We are not living in Venezuela or the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea.
1
I will accept a "strong social safety net" but we Americans learned along time ago with Johnson's Great Society" that democrats will waste tons of money trying to help those that won't help themselves. We know that the socialism now being sold to us is the AOC type in which a bartender from Brooklyn takes over every business in America. That is the "new Green RipOff".
Remember that Bernie has lobbied hard for your social 'wishes" and was told by the democrats twice to go sit down. Bernie is OK with that as running for office is his business and he and his wife have made millions losing for President. Everybody is happy and your silly socialism is dead for another 20 years.
1
@Bill Virginia - Do you have any clue about how much our shredded "social safety net" actually costs us taxpayers - particularly in light of the bucketfuls of tax cuts, subsidies and rebates we've been shoveling at the Pluto-Corporatocracy for the past 40 years? Do you have any clue about how few Americans receive benefits from those shredded programs? Do you have any clue about how measly is the support those programs actually provide to recipients? Do you have any clue as to the ages of those who receive benefits, or their ability to work? Any clue about work requirements and how many recipients are already employes? Or the time limits on receiving benefits?
Nah, didn't thing so. It's easy to find the answers to those questions, but it's a lot easier to just spout inaccurate (R) memes.
56
@Bill Virginia OK Bill!!
1
@Miss Anne Thrope
I'm a public librarian. I'd be more than happy to help people find the answers to those questions. It's my job and I'm good at it. But I've come to believe that most of them are just plain lazy. They're too lazy to look for information even though there's a world of information at their fingertips and they're too lazy to exhibit any intellectual curiosity. They're too lazy to do anything other than spout what they've been told without doing even a modicum of research to verify it.
Lazy! Lazy! Lazy! Just like POTUS.
1
YOu might want to have a word with your colleague Thomas L Friedman who spends his latest column inches victory dancing and lecturing over Bernie Sanders' campaign collapse rather than lecturing Republicans that a market economy and a welfare system can coexist without turning the US into Venezuela. The latter is a much more useful and important pitch to be making but as per usual Friedman wants to play the faux centrist card at the expense of the real issue which is the right's ideological rigidity and evidence-less policy making.
61
@Miguel Valadez
In his column today, Friedman suddenly embraces all of Sanders's "socialist" policies, while excoriating Sanders for espousing them. At no time in his way too long career had Friedman ever advocated a strong welfare state, universal paid childcare, universal paid parental and medical leave, universal healthcare, a liveable wage, generous pensions or strong unions...until today. Not only does he write admiringly of Denmark, he thinks he is Denmark...just not socialist.
7
@John Bacher
But, being married to a billionaire, he is part of the 1%
3
I really do hope I'm wrong but to think that the Republicans will change after the pandemic is over is difficult to believe. They have NEVER shown any desire to fix our health care system. They are perfectly OK with fellow citizens getting sick and dying as long as they can hoard their money. There is a quote from Jesus where he says to his followers" what you do for the least of you,you do for me."
16
Beware of Republicans in Democrats' clothing - "socialism" will become permanent tax breaks for corporations, elimination of rules for worker protections and anything else they can slip under the cover of the corona virus.
29
Farhad,
There is not only a good chance that this emerging social consciousness in America will be short-lived and evaporate; it is in the greed-based, gun-toting, hyper-individualistic DNA of this country, which makes it inevitable. I don't claim everyone, or even a majority of Americans, are of this disposition, only that the powers that be, and their constituents, mostly are, despite any rhetoric they may preach.
33
Americans are perpetual teenagers- like the book:
Mom, get out of my life, but can you drive me and cheryl to the mall first?
They vote against help until they need it
and then resent others getting it
and our president is a toddler-
shaking hands, when he usually doesn't, just to spite the elites
I can't imagine things will change once the danger is gone
84
@Bonnie Rudner Great comment and I love that book! It always amazes me when conservatives rail against "big government" but they sure love it when something goes wrong.
16
Accurate and pithy headline, but OLD news. In the 2000's all the high-flying bankers were capitalist cowboy mavericks until the reckoning of 2008, when they all came home to the socialist safety net of the US govt to save them. Rinse repeat.
No atheists in foxholes.
No libertarians when reality hits the fan.
20
Farhad, I totally disagree.
We are not Socialists.
We are Democrats and we are moderates.
Last night America roundly rejected Socialism.
If Sanders and his supporters want a seat at the table then they must realize that they not only lost but that their bankrupt ideology, and Bernie is an ideologue if he is anything, was totally rejected.
The moderates won. The Socialists didn't.
Corona virus has nothing to do with this.
And Biden, btw, will lead us through this a lot better than the loud mouthed Bernie Bros.
4
Good article and spot on.
Sooo much hypocrisy in America.
12
I thought it was interesting when Republican members of Congress stopped parroting the president and attempted to self quarantine after their (remote) exposure to a person with Covid-19. (That guy from Iowa excepted, of course.)
One something affects them, personally, the hypocrisy melts always like the lipid outer shell of a virus exposed to soap.
Republicans have known the truth all along. They lie because they believe the lies benefit them, or cause harm to those they don’t like.
It takes a raging Coronavirus to remind them they are human like the rest of us.
14
Barely.
3
“What if the virus forces Americans and their elected representatives to recognize the strength of a collectivist ethos?”
I really love this. As we seek to create “a more perfect union”, and “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” might it be that this opportunity (as we face coronavirus) will assist in our values re-alignment? Same founding values—just different dosing. For decades, the bottom line has been corporate profit. That has trumped everything. Coupled with individual freedom. The American Way. From a polarity perspective—-individualism and capitalism have been calling the shots. Sacrosanct, in a sense. And we are less healthy because of it.
This moment helps us see that we and all our future is bound up in each other. To re-align a bit. We are a collection of folks. All bound up together. And that’s a beautiful thing.
Mother Teresa said it like this: “If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other. “ In this moment, coronavirus is helping us see, that if we have no health, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.
Therein, the gift. Belonging. Tending. One, whole system. One national system. And one global system, too. Air, germs, love...know no borders. Re-aligning not to become “socialist” but rather, to get the profound balance right. Or at least, more closely so! We can do this, America. It’s our time. We are, after all, One Nation. And she’s a beauty!
5
if only there was a candidate who was railing against corporate greed and hypocrisy! oh wait there was!
12
@Brent There were two, or more. Warren just didn't bellow quite as loudly as Bernie.
3
Speak for yourself Mango and don't include me in your calculations!
1
"The worst [nation] will treat it as a temporary annoyance, refusing to consider deeper fixes even if they somehow stagger through this crisis." It's likely the U.S. fits this pessimism.
We tend toward short-term fixes instead of reflecting on systemic dysfunctions. While external threats can force us to bond for a while -- like world wars -- the coronavirus is a threat still unpredictable, confusing, unknown. And we can't trust the president to be anywhere near a guiding light, but more a befuddled dictator with a grudge against the truth.
I applaud companies that aim to protect workers and the community. Perhaps there will be a lasting effect -- as opposed to those that will feel compelled to make up lost profits by less humane and customer-conscious ways.
2
"So what if we used this illness as an excuse to really, permanently protect the least among us?"
Nope, not Team Trump. They come up with a proposal to eliminate payroll taxes through the end of the year. You know, the taxes that fund Medicare Medicaid, and Social Security. They would use this illness to weaken the protections most of us have,
Don't worry, Larry Kudlow says growth will make up the $700 billion lost. It'll trickle down. The Larry Kudlow that Paul Krugman says is always wrong.
Wait and see. If Trump is reelected, it won't take a New York minute for calls to begin for "reforms" to Medicare and Social Security because they're "going broke."
24
This is a Pulitzer prize level column from Farhad. He's so dead on about the larger implications of the coronavirus situation it's hard to know where to begin the accolades.
But two points he's made that need to be repeated over and over:
The absolute cynical hypocrisy of those who in good times are decisively Social Darwinist, dismissive of those who can't afford their own private safety nets but who whine about the need for "government" and collective societal response when threatened is just mind blowing. And, of course, they forget all about "it takes a village" when the crisis blows over, and go right back to being their selfish cruel selves. We'd be well advised to keep these people out of positions of authority to whatever extent we can.
And, I agree that these type of stress-test crises are the ones that, among modern societies. might well separate the 21st century contenders from the pretenders--and the United States, unless it can foster more of a collective ethos really quickly, is going to be among the latter.
27
I get a very different reaction to "socialism" and the Corona virus. I see huge government mismanagement both here and in China. Do I really want our politicized bureaucracy managing our health care?
We have excellent insurance as New York State employees: hard-fought through years of pubic sector union strength. As a multiple transplant recipient, I need that quality. This epidemic only proves to me that we need a public/private mix like the Affordable Care Act promotes.
1
@Matthew I generally place a greater degree of trust in government bureaucracies than private, profit driven ones. That degree of trust varies with administrations, the current one being utterly incompetent and self-serving. Yes, I have okay insurance from my employer but what happens when that job ends? And the job will end, I have no doubt about that. If this epidemic proves anything it will be being white is no protection.
11
No. We are not turning into socialists at all, far from it. Instead we are rallying the best part of America, which is evidenced when we respond to a crisis. For all our faults, when there is major event that requires assistance, we are right there.
That’s what’s happening now.
1
@Norville T. Johnston Are we right there? I am 57 and it is my observation, and reading of history, that even during major events, the response is never without a fight and is for too many, a day late and a dollar short. Remember some Congressperson shouting "Let 'em die!"? Remember all the thousands who lost their homes in the Great Recession? My husband and I never had to live in our car ONLY because we come from families with resources to help up get past 10 months of hardship.
11
@Norville T. Johnston American taxpayers fund any government response to a crisis. They don't go and print money at the mint for it. You should learn what socialism actually is and apply the definition to what you think "government-funded" means before you marginalize it.
2
In the 1970s I had the privilege of working with the Community Service Administration. We were dedicated to providing a safety net of care and services through integrated and coordinated agency interactions. We thoughtfully explored womb to tomb planning and implemented a wide range of medical, educational and support services. Ronald Reagan eliminated the CSA by executive order and began the dissolution of what promised to be a responsible societal effort to care for its members. The roots of the demise of the social consciousness of the greatest generation can easily be traced to the callous, short-term, corporate-oriented decision making of the early 1980s
37
The thing with Mother Nature is that she always bats 1000.
COVID is the warning shot. Mother Nature is now at bat.
And if we don't change, and this nation doesn't step up and join the ranks of the advanced, decent, and progressive societies (the U.S. is none of these things), the outcome will be devastating. For us and the world.
Because COVID is only the beginning. There are other massive natural disasters other than climate change coming our way. There are more pandemics coming. This is not a one-and-done. This is the opening salvo on the new normal.
It's also a warning. We should heed it.
We need elect to leaders (Biden would be a good start) that will prepare this country, and our people, for the next pandemic. This includes enacting universal health care (I don't care how you do it; just do it); universal sick leave; and restoring the funding and resources that the Trump Administration stripped from the Institutes of Health and the CDC because they were so determined, no matter how shortsighted it was, to burn everything Obama touched.
And don't tell me we can't quickly enact universal health care and sick leave. We CAN. It's already happening. The government and many major employers are essentially being forced to do that now, in a desperate attempt to be seen as doing something about COVID. All we need to do is formalize (legislate) what they've basically already agreed to do, which is that everyone needs access to health care and sick leave in this country.
63
America has two major problems that will likely prevent it from changing in time to ward off its impending collapse into autocracy.
First there are structural problems. Presidential systems are inherently flawed and tend to devolve into autocracies. Parliamentary systems aren't perfect, but because they put the people's assembly in full control of both the executive and legislative powers, they produce a government that is both efficient and accountable to the people. American federalism, separation of powers, and republicanism all combine to create a government too divided to function well, unresponsive to the people, and with a large power void most easily filled by an autocratic president.
Second is culture. Maybe the core of the American value system is a belief that individuals always get what they deserve. The rich deserve their wealth. The poor deserve their poverty. Communal and collective effort to help the less fortunate only upsets the divine order that separates winning individuals from losing individuals. It takes from the deserving winners to give to the undeserving losers. It spares the losers from the punishment they deserve and indeed need if they are ever to improve. And it takes from the winners the rich rewards they deserve and discourages their worthy initiative. Healthier cultures believe we're all in it together. American culture believes winners take all.
22
I hope you're right and that those with the mulish heels in the mud stance against fair and equal delivery of healthcare will realize that socialized medicine is good for business. But, the American view is that health is the property, responsibility, and right of the individual. Property rights laws apply. We wouldn't expect a socialized mortgage or credit card debt system, except in times of public economic emergencies. Americans don't want to be regulated in private domains. The emergency will pass and the government will reward the masses by returning them to the freedom of individualized healthcare. Those with greater investments in the value of the private property of real estate, stocks, bonds, trusts, off shore accounts, and high prices for medical and pharmaceutical will absolutely make sure of it and the deplorables will go along with it, for they worship their betters.
7
@Max Shapiro Well, if memory serves, about 75% of Americans consistently poll in favor of universal health care. It's not "the American view," that health care is an individual responsibility. It's the view of our government--the best money can buy.
17
@Terry What American say and what they are willing to act on are very different things. They like the idea of universal health care far more than actually seeing one penny of their taxes being raised to cover it. Personal sacrifice for the common good is someone else's job. They have, as another commenter wrote, the attention of a gnat, and nearly a complete disinterest in using their Google machine for any research beyond Yelp restaurant reviews.
5
@Terry
The "pursuit of happiness" was perhaps as close as Jefferson to get to writing the "pursuit of conscience," or the right to act with good conscience, something he'd gleaned from Spinoza. Americans think Jefferson was wrong to change Locke's 'property' to 'happiness' but what is happiness but a clear and rational conscience that can feel better about itself than taking other people's property from them? In Jefferson's time, democracy and the legal system was a way to protect private property from the monarchy-corporation's taking it when it wanted to. Now, the legal system, as a government monopoly, is in the service of the feudal style corporations that own our lives. Healthcare for the poor working slob, ought to be something the monarchist party that protects major financial interests would support, but, they can't do that because that would empower democracy, which is worse than a healthy workforce. Laws that protect money are written and paid for by government. The government is legal monopoly that is owned, legally, by those who bought it.
4
Only when we recognize the nation's health as a security issue and not a social issue, will we protect our citizen's correctly. Perhaps this pandemic has provided the vehicle to bring our leaders to that realization.
If we move just a quarter of the pentagon budget to the health care ledger, we will be on our way.
26
When you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
No, companies aren’t embracing socialism because of the pandemic, they are doing the smart thing for business - trying to minimize the impact and stigma of the virus. It’s good, old-fashioned self-interest - (you know, that weird the thing that makes capitalism work) and nothing more.
3
@MB
I think that's why Manjoo is pessimistic that real change will occur. What we're seeing isn't real change. It's just more capitalist greed.
8
What America has is weak and expensive safety net. It is not t hat we do not have social spending. Our social spending is more than a trillion dollars. We just do not spend it wisely and we allow the medical establishment to take us to the cleaners.
We also award millions of dollars in compensations for small medical errors.
We do not need more money , we need more wisdom. Neither Sanders nor Trump will bring that. Will Biden? Remains to be seen.
6
@Ludwig
Health insurance stock got a boost when Biden won Super Tuesday, so the corrupt medical establishment knows who its friends are.
3
Agree with your points but Biden is not the vehicle for change.
4
@Daniel Johnson
Biden will be the vehicle for change. The progressives will be sitting at the table and their issues will be addressed.
Think of it as a kinder Trojan horse story.
1
I'd like to say that it's just Republicans that forget about the working class. Unfortunately, as you have pointed out, the forgetting is systemic. Democrats also have forsaken many citizens/workers by inaction, if not intent. So, we all have work to do and the virus is indeed a good reminder that a chain is only as good as its weakest link.
7
Completely correct in every aspect. The safety and well being of the citizens should come first. There is no need to abandon capitalism. Realignment of priorities would go a long way to closing the gaps we have in the social safety net. How long can we continue with a trillion dollars of military spending? Those resources could go to infrastructure and domestic services. How long are we going to subsidize the carbon extraction industries? Are we going to bail out fracking companies or are we going to use our wealth to transition those workers and businesses to renewable energy? Will 2020 be when we finally wake up to the fact that we will continue to have catastrophes due to world over crowding and global warming? Also that we have the power to reduce their frequency and mitigate their severity through choices. I hope so.
6
Suggest you read your colleague Thomas Friedman's article, "Joe Biden, Not Bernie Sanders, Is the True Scandinavian". People say they want socialism and not capitalism as they believe the government will take care of all their needs. As Mr. Friedman points out, no country that provides universal benefits to its citizens uses socialism as their economic model, and every country that provides universal benefits has a very high tax rate on everyone (not just the rich) in order to pay for those benefits. If health care was provided as efficiently and inexpensively as Apple provides iPhones, we'd all be better off. Unfortunately a government run system may provide health care as inefficiently and expensively as the Department of Motor Vehicles. Perhaps we should all pay for health care via a central, government run insurance program, but let those who know how to run companies and provide medical care be the ones who actually provide health care.
1
@Dr B Conservatives always criticize Motor Vehicle Departments. Under the circumstances, tracking 180 million driving adults, I think they do a pretty good job. It takes an hour? Bring a book.
15
@Jtati I suspect you have not been to a DMV lately to try and get your government mandated Real ID. If the government could make such a mess, and cause 5 hour wait lines, to obtain a simple card, imagine how well they'd handle a mass of people trying to register for Medicare for all, let alone actually provide the care.
1
@Dr B @Dr B I did. I went when the place opened and was in and out in 35 minutes.
9
Bernie may be on the way out, and with him the faint hopes of achieving universal healthcare coverage anytime soon. But Medicare for All is still the best proposal for achieving it. It won't prevent rogue viruses, but it will give us a much better chance at containing them. It will give us a healthier and more productive workforce, who will enjoy higher wages as overall healthcare costs will be lower. Thanks for waking people up, Bernie. May you - and I - live long enough to see it come to pass!
23
@Dr. George MD : "... universal healthcare coverage anytime soon...?" Seriously? Soon? Ever hear of McConnell? Ever hear of down-ticket races? It took two world wars to bring England to the point of accepting the NHS.
2
@Des Johnson
England's NHS happened at warp speed compared to the benighted States of Exceptionalism. Theodore Roosevelt tried to implement universal coverage in 1912. It will never happen in America. If after Trump, the senescent Joe Biden beat America's best and only hope for universal healthcare, even though a pandemic is overwhelming the putative healthcare system, abandon hope. As another commenter, Donald in Yonkers, pointed out, Biden's triumph rocketed health insurance stocks skyward.
3
Good points. A nit: Denmark is not socialist. It has a social safety net - that is not the same thing. Denmark is very capitalist (not saying that is good either). Also, Denmark is a little country, and historically homogeneous, although that is changing. The US is vast, and diverse, with many opposing value systems. And the US national government is corrupt and dysfunctional, because it is so big and so far removed from us. The thought of medical care being defined at the national level is really scary. The state level - that would make more sense.
8
"Much of the danger we face now grows out of America’s tattered social safety net — the biting cost and outright lack of health care and child care and elder care, the corporate war on paid leave, and the plagues of homelessness and hunger."
Yes, all of this and more. Looking back over my life, the things I took for granted as a working person are no longer available to many: living wage, medical insurance, paid sick leave. Also affordable education. I knew several people who delayed college for a year to work and save. On a minimum wage salary they supported themselves in a rat hole apartment, drove a junker car, ate cheap food, but could still begin college the next year. A minimum wage job is no longer even close to a living wage. Our billionaires and heartless corporate 'personhood' entities come at the expense of We the People.
Thank you for this column. The buzzards of "...layers and layers of unaccounted for risk" are coming home to roost.
138
Beautiful piece, well thought out and cuts to the heart of the vulnerabilities in US society.
176
Big business and the GOP need to consider that pandemics are a predictable new norm. Some not as bad, some perhaps worse as SARS nearly was.
Now is the time to acknowledge that universal well run and cost efficient healthcare is required in a world where constant travel and a large global population that together make emerging diseases inevitable, sooner or later.
And the economy will always be touched even is our bumbling, science illiterate GOP doesn't get it. Short term planning only works for quarter-over-quarter reports and CEO salaries.
11
@poslug CEO salaries are the only ones the GOP cares to protect. Hourly workers are not the ones funding their campaigns and their lifestyles (except through taxes)
11
Agree that it is nice to see some corporate responsibility, but I can't see how this event would bolster anyone's confidence in the competence of government in the health care domain.
1
@Dave - it should bolster the notion that everyone should have healthcare insurance. It would be privately delivered, as Medicare is now. The government has handled that pretty well for over 50 years. Show me a Medicare enrollee who wants to go back to their private insurance.
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@Dave
The American government is dysfunctional. But the answer is not to abandon government, it's to fix America's dysfunctional system. Canada is handling this crisis much better, I think, because the Canadian government is better funded, better organized, and better managed. Contrary to Republican mythology, government is a good thing that every society needs—and a large, complex society like America's needs a large and well-run government. Unfortunately, Republican policies and politics are a kind of vandalism that has made our government weak and ineffective. If America really wants to be the greatest country in the world, it needs the greatest government. Right now, though, America's government is far behind the world's best.
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@Dave Obviously you have never been poor or sick and poor, or even worked in health care. The vast majority of funding to our hospital system comes from the federal government. Educate yourself just a little.
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There’s a very simple reason that Trump, the GOP and the right-wing media are downplaying this pandemic: it’s mostly a blue state problem. Meanwhile, business sectors like energy and hospitality are have a hard time, so for them...socialism!!
It really isn’t more complicated than that.
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@David R They're delusional if they don't think it will spread beyond blue states. Really, it's an elderly person problem. If half the electorate over 65 dies of COVID, no Republican will ever be elected to national office again, because the over-65 voters are like 2/3 of their support base.
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Social cohesion creates a strong social safety net.
And it's not a crisis until there is real scarcity. Then we'll see who keeps what for themselves because they can. I'm old enough to remember the Soviet Union.
A strong social safety net means everyone is treated equally and feels they are both givers and potential takers.
Keep giving away prizes and privileges by political power and posturing and it will still be every man for himself.
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What a great article. Your keen insight gave me a flash of hope that not all is lost in our country. Will you please forward your article to Joe and Bernie so that they don't miss it.
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Of course, it's important all people have health care (not insurance, health care) in a pandemic. That way they are treated and tested and isolated in a way that helps them and others by preventing the spread of the disease.
We are week 8 of the lock down here in Zhengzhou, China. In this city of 10 million people, 500 kms from the epicenter, Wuhan, there are no known new cases. I don't if we have had many cases at all. We all just shut down in late January, and it seems to have worked.
But it was just the government that did it. It surely was - there are still police guarding my apartment exit, and without a green QR code and a good temp reading, I can't leave and I can't come back. But there definitely was a communal sense of "WE ARE GOING TO WAR" against the virus. There really was and is. Zhengzhou is kinda back to normal. We shouldn't count our chickens, but it no longer looks like zombie apocalypse.
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“ this is America, and forgetting working people is just what we do.” - That is an unnecessarily and unrealistically negative statement. That sort of attitude is part of the problem, not part of the solution.
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@Jay
Reality strikes again.
This isn't a workers paradise by any means. A lot of people do well when they have pensions and savings earned through their jobs. A lot of people fall through the cracks. We all can't be hedge fund managers.
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@Jay
It is not an “attitude”—it is sadly the truth
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@Jay well what does government do for them?
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Corporations will get away with whatever we let them. Here in France, the unions shut down Paris because their president wanted to eliminate some benefits. I got stuck in one of the rallies. Quite impressive, even here in Nice. Macron backed down.
So, to keep the ball rolling, we need a new militancy from the populus.
In a way, COVID-19 has given people the backbone to stand up to employers taking advantage of them. Why go to work if you have a 5 to 10% chance of dying? It just plain isn't worth it.
I do contract employment, and will no longer consider it if I can't work from home and have a sick leave benefit from day 1 of my employment. For too long, employers were able to skirt the law with contractors, but not anymore.
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@Cal Page There is a saying that the French government is afraid of its citizens while American citizens are afraid of their government.
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Like Bernie said, "We shouldn't have to depend on the generosity of billionaires." A genuine social safety net and universal health care should become permanent. They should be our right. Crises happen everyday, they just go unnoticed. And it would really be better for the economy overall -- less illness, less absenteeism, less stress, less automation. Can you imagine?
The fight isn't over yet. The democratic primaries aren't even half over. Vote for what you care about. Vote your conscience. It will matter in the end no matter who gets the nomination.
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