Wednesday, January 27, 2021

The Greed Pandemic Is What Is Killing Us

COVID Simply Exposed The Virus We Live With Every Day

Jonathan Tasini

Jan 27

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Each year in the past few years, I’ve read through Oxfam’s terrific annual report on the global class warfare that is shoveling trillions of dollars into a few hands—and, as a result, killing millions of humans.

This isn’t hyperbole: the system that is enriching a few is deny workers a decent wage, keeping food out of the mouths of people, proper health care out of reach of people who are sick (the pandemic has proven that in spades) and saddling millions with crushing debt that is built up just to survive.

You are pretty wise. You know this. But, we can’t just let this become background noise, something we are so familiar with that too many of us shrug because, well, that’s the way it is. It has to make us angry every time we read about it.

So, in a moment, I’ll spool out some of the info in the report (and, at the end, I’ve posted the Working Life podcast video just out TODAY that has my conversation with Oxfam’s Paul O’Brien) but first two big points to keep in mind:

First point: keep this greed virus and Oxfam’s report in mind when you hear this crazy debate in Congress over how big a stimulus we need. There are the deficit pearl clutchers like Fifth Columnist Joe Manchin who are threatening to block sending people a one-time $2,000 relief check—which is an improvement on a one-time miserly one-time $600 relief check—but FAR SHORT of what I, and many others, have argued for: $2,000 EVERY MONTH until the pandemic subsides.

Here is your mantra:

THERE IS NO GOVERNMENT SPENDING PROBLEM. IT’S A REVENUE PROBLEM.

Repeat that again, tattoo it in your memory banks:

THERE. IS. NO. GOVERNMENT. SPENDING. PROBLEM.

IT. IS. A. REVENUE. PROBLEM.

And that is made abundantly clear when anyone reads the Oxfam report: in the richest nation in human history, we have plenty of money…it’s just a question of whether the amoral fucks like Jeff Bezos are forced to give some of it up. Wealth taxes, my friends! (not to mention that even newly-minted Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin—a former chair of the Federal Reserve Board—is advocating for big, big spending at a time of record-low interest rates)

Second point: every time you read about gross inequality, remember, that the historic level of inequality is directly connected to the relentless attack against unions, here and around the globe. The only dependable force to pry some of the money out of the wealthy so it ends up in the hands of working people is the labor movement, not politicians.

OK, what does Oxfam tell us? I could reprint almost every page but I want to limit my thoughts here to some nuggets that help YOU talk to others:

Here is the top-level summary…burn this in your brain—[the bold is my emphasis]:

In March 2020, stock markets around the globe suffered the worst shock in a century, destroying billions of dollars’ worth of financial assets. However, since then stock markets have recovered well, and with them the fortunes of the world’s richest people, who hold much of their wealth in stocks and shares. The wealth of the top 1,000 billionaires, a small group of mostly White men, has recovered to pre-pandemic levels in only nine months. In contrast, after the 2008 financial crisis, it took five years for billionaire wealth to recover to its pre-crisis highs. The fact that the stock market is booming while the real economy is facing its deepest depression in a century is in large part a reaction to central banks having moved dramatically to inject billions of dollars into stock markets to prevent them from crashing, while governments having moved more erratically to support their real economies.
Worldwide, billionaires saw their wealth increase by a staggering $3.9tn between 18 March and 31 December 2020. Their total wealth now stands at $11.95tn, which is equivalent to what G20 governments have spent in response to the pandemic. Only three of the 50 richest billionaires in the world saw their fortunes diminish over that period, losing $3bn between them. The two billionaires who saw the largest increases in their wealth in this period are active in the technology and automotive, battery production and space sectors: Elon Musk increased his net wealth by $128.9bn, Jeff Bezos by $78.2bn. The world’s 10 richest billionaires have collectively seen their wealth increase by $540bn over this period.

Nothing is really knew about this global robbery. It existed before the pandemic because of immoral capitalism—which simply gave fertile ground to COVID to tear through the globe and make things even worse:

This extreme inequality is the product of an exploitative economic system that is designed to benefit a wealthy and powerful few. It is built on neoliberal economics and the capture of politics by elites. This system has driven a relentless accumulation of wealth and income at the top, while squeezing those at the bottom and fuelling poverty. Despite a doubling of global gross domestic product (GDP) since 1990, in low- and lower-middle-income countries, over half of workers still live in poverty, and workers around the world have gained little from the proceeds of economic growth; in 91 of 133 countries between 1995 and 2014, wages did not grow as fast as productivity.
The flawed economic model has exploited and exacerbated entrenched systems of inequality and oppression, namely patriarchy and structural racism, rooted in white supremacy. It depends on the work of women and racialized groups across the world, such as Black people, Afro-descendants, Indigenous Peoples, and historically marginalized and oppressed communities, to help sustain an economy that drives the accumulation of wealth and privilege in the hands of a White patriarchal elite. Globally, women do three-quarters of all unpaid care work, and comprise two-thirds of the paid – often underpaid – care workforce, which contributes trillions of dollars to the global economy and enables the wealthiest to prosper. This work is even more essential and onerous in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, and yet it remains underpaid and undervalued.

Now, here are two points you can connect:

“In September 2020, Jeff Bezos, then the richest man on Earth, could have personally paid each of Amazon’s 876,000 employees a one-off $105,000 bonus with the wealth he accumulated between March and August 2020 alone, and still be as wealthy as he was at the beginning of the pandemic.”

And:

“People living in poverty are the most exposed to the virus. They tend to live in crowded dwellings, deprived of water and sanitation facilities.”

Think, then, of Bezos’ immoral wealth in the context of the pandemic and trying to stay COVID-free: Bezos could have rented thousands of hotel rooms on his dime for the entire pandemic and opened those rooms up to families who needed to socially distance but cannot because they live in crowded living quarters—and he would have saved lives (not to mention helped thousands of hotel workers get their jobs back) AND still have more money than anyone can spend in many lifetimes.

Oxfam does suggest an alternative vision:

Now is the time to rip up the rulebook, and invest in policies that will build a more equal, inclusive and sustainable world. Now is the time to dismantle structural racism and patriarchy, and design democratic processes which ensure that the rights of all people, including those currently living in poverty, women, Black People, Afro-descendants, Indigenous Peoples and historically marginalized and oppressed communities are met.

Bottom line: this is a horrible virus, made worse because of the incompetent response to the pandemic and the malfesance of political leaders. But, the damage to human life, and to the jobs and existence of millions of people, is an unsurprising outcome made possible by a bankrupt, sick, exploitative economic system we’ve lived with for decades.

Lastly: below is my chat with Paul O’Brien—I really think you will get a lot from what he has to say…even where he and I slightly disagree about the question of whether better regulated capitalism can work to narrow inequality (IMHO, inequality is a feature, not a bug, of capitalism)…check it out.

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