By Ranting Panda, 20 March 2020
The year 2020 has been marked by disasters of biblical proportions. Within the first three months, we've seen catastrophic bushfires in Australia, locust infestations in Africa and Pakistan, earthquakes in Iran and Turkey, floods and mudslides in Brazil, a volcano in the Philippines and then, just when we thought it couldn't get any worse, a global pestilence in the form of COVID-19, a type of Coronavirus that we've never seen before.
Within weeks the entire world was brought a halt as the virus rapidly turned into a pandemic. International travelled all but stopped. Numerous countries forced people to quarantine themselves in their homes. Businesses either laying staff off or requiring them to work from home. Large gatherings banned. Sporting events played to empty stadiums. Many countries not having enough testing kits and their hospitals unable to cope with the influx of victims. But perhaps the most bizarre response, people in Australia panic buying toilet paper even though diarrhoea is a very rare effect of COVID-19.
Those panic-buying hoarders, some of whom got into violent altercations over dunny paper, were rightly and roundly criticised by many others. It was ironic though, that much of this criticism came from ardent capitalists, yet capitalism is all about survival of the fittest and lauding those who accumulate the most wealth and possessions. Apparently hoarding toilet paper at an inopportune time is not acceptable, even though its ok to hoard millions of dollars while failing to pay living wages to the workers who made the rich successful. Ironic then, that these capitalists, wringing their hands in despair of their fellow citizens, were lamenting why don't people share their wealth, why don't people care about their neighbours ... why don't those who have much, help those who have little ... why aren't people sharing 'from each according to their ability, to each according to their need'?
Is there anything more sanctimonious than capitalists criticising the greed in others?
COVID-19 is a deadly virus with currently no known cure. It has killed thousands of people and shows no sign of letting up at this stage. The virus is of grave concern and quite rightly, governments are prioritising the health and safety of people through travel bans and social isolation. As a result, it almost feels like the zombie apocalypse has struck. Cities which are normally packed with people are practically deserted. Roads that are often gridlocked and public transport that is overflowing, are almost empty. It is an eerie feeling.
However, there is potentially a much larger threat than COVID-19 and that is the social catastrophe that this may cause. Many people are unable to go to work because of social isolation measures. No work = no pay. No pay means that mortgages, rent, bills can't get paid. It means that people can't afford to buy essential items. It potentially means homelessness and lawlessness. Large companies have laid off thousands of staff. Qantas for instance, who made $1.3 billion profit in 2018/19, has laid off 20,000 staff.
Australia has a welfare system that will help some people, however, the welfare payments won't pay the bills for those who were earning significantly more prior to this and have large mortgages and other financial commitments.
What about countries without safety nets, Philippines for instance? President Duterte ordered everyone on the island of Luzon to be confined to their houses. The Philippines capital, Manila, is located on Luzon. Also located there are numerous call-centres used by many companies in western countries. These call centres employ many Filipinos. They have shutdown. Of course, its not just call-centres that are affected. Every worker on Luzon is impacted. This is an island of 48 million people and without a welfare safety net, many of these people will not be paid. Imagine the social catastrophe of millions of people suddenly unable to feed themselves and their families, to pay for their food, accommodation, utilities, health care and education.
This is a scenario that will likely be played out across the globe.
The world is potentially facing a catastrophic economic collapse, with millions, perhaps billions, out of work and unable to afford basic necessities. If we thought the fights over toilet paper were bad, this will be exponentially worse. It has the potential to reduce society to utter lawlessness, as desperate people beg, borrow and steal, steal, steal to ensure survival. It may not be the zombie apocalypse that has featured in so many movies and TV shows, but it is going to be close as people fight and kill to access food and essential resources.
COVID-19 isn't just a health threat. Social isolation & quarantine may cost millions of jobs, potentially causing a societal collapse if people can't pay for food or necessities. This could cause a global collapse, lawlessness, anarchy.
The phrase of the year will be 'social distancing' ... perhaps it should be 'Pyrrhic Victory', because shutting down the world to protect against COVID-19, will save some lives, but has the potential to destroy society as we know it. The victory over the virus may cost us more than we would have lost if we didn't shut society down, destroying jobs, business, charities, people's lives.
In many countries, people are banned from going to work, banned from socialising, banned from celebrations. What could possibly go wrong?
It is well known that boredom and desperation make for a violent concoction amongst prisoners. The social distancing measures to counter COVID-19 have turned the entire world into a prison, which will create significant desperation and boredom. The Purge movies revolved around one night a year of civil disobedience and lawlessness. It is entirely possible, that the longer these social isolation measures are enforced, we will see lawlessness on an unimaginable scale and it won't just be for one night a year. It could well become the norm.
In addition to this, there is the pain, suffering, malnutrition, starvation, significant health impacts as health systems across the globe are unable to cope, not just with COVID-19, but the results of extreme poverty and homelessness caused by the loss of millions of jobs. Not every country has a publicly funded health care system; in many countries it is user pays.
We beat the virus and destroy society.
Buckle up, buttercup!
This single event, the COVID-19 crisis, illustrates why capitalism is an abject failure. For years, neo-liberal governments have been privatising essential services, including health, education and energy, resulting in these services being delivered by companies that are only interested in the balance sheet, not in service delivery to the community. Now that we are on the eve of a cataclysmic economic collapse, these companies are expecting governments to bail them out. Clearly, they acknowledge that socialism is ultimately the only way that society can be protected against such disasters. Private industry isn't going to save us.
Australia's neo-liberal LNP government extracted years of political mileage out of criticising the stimulus package that former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his Treasurer, Wayne Swan, implemented early on in the Global Financial Crisis during 2008. This stimulus ensured that Australia was one of only a few western nations that did not go into recession during the GFC. And the LNP condemned it.
Now, Prime Minister Scott Morrison's LNP government has announced a stimulus package to try to rescue jobs and businesses during the COVID-19 crisis. This small act of socialism to share the wealth with the most needy, must gall the ultra-conservative, neo-liberal LNP.
When the world recovers from COVID-19, it has the opportunity to reform economic systems to be more sharing and caring, to ensure that workers rights are protected and that companies don't go on chasing ultra-high profits while exploiting people.
The COVID-19 crisis should be a wake-up call to the world. Capitalism promotes individuality, not community. Capitalism idolises private accumulation of wealth at the expense of others. Capitalism is founded in exploitation and slavery, treating workers as disposable resources to be used, abused and discarded. This virus has exposed the spirit of capitalism for what it is: self-serving, individualistic, uncaring. Socialism promotes a community-minded spirit of cooperation and sharing. Socialism protects workers from the predatory, profit-driven nature of private industry.
Certainly, there needs to be social distancing, but the desperation that will be caused through destroying people's livelihoods, homes, families, could be avoided through wealth redistribution: from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs.
It is socialism that will save the world, through ending exploitation and more equitably sharing of wealth. Then we can get back to fighting the other capitalist disaster that is threatening the world and future generations: anthropogenic climate change.
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