WE’RE GOING TO HAVE TO REINTRODUCE SLAVERY TO SAVE THE ECONOMY

OK, I lied, every time I try to write a non Covid-19 post, something else Covid-19 related happens that made me want to rend my garments and pound the keyboard. So here we are again. America is number one now, more Covid-19 cases than any other country. The main thing I want to write about, is that we are about a week from the sh*t truly hitting the fan in the US. At the current rate of progression, we’ll hit a million cases in the US by the first week of April, next weekend basically. Thousands will be dying daily and health care systems in the worst hit areas will be overwhelmed. People just aren’t getting how fast Covid-19 will grow from something that doesn’t look too bad into a disaster. It’s day 40 people, read this and understand why day 48 is a nightmare. The enemy is at the gates. And it might already be worse than we know, likely much worse. Or even this.

So a few more points. There have been calls to let Covid-19 run its course, that in the long run we’d be better off if we let a few million old and sick people die so that people can get back to work and a great depression is avoided. Seriously, like politicians and leaders have for real made this case. My first response to this: Are you a fucking psychopath!? My second: If you ever claim to be pro-life again, I hope someone punches you in the face. There’s also giant piles of logical reasons why this is magical thinking at best. Fascist eugenics at worst. The “let them die” argument is based on the “everything was great” premise. It wasn’t, this pandemic has illustrated on so many levels how our society was failing in protecting the common good. There are ways to get through Covid-19 that don’t involve a million dead Americans and a great depression, but they will involve lowering of corporate profits and executive bonuses. If MacDonald’s can no longer spend $10k per employee per year buying back their own stock, the economy will be just fine. Basically that’s what the alt-right is asking us to do, throw granny to the wolves so that the mind numbing upwards transfer of wealth that has defined America since Reagan can continue unabated. Talk about worshiping a Golden Calf.

More on point, a million or more Americans dying will be an economic disaster with long term consequences. They won’t all be useless old and sick people (and that’s not what I think about the elderly and ill, but sticking with the logic of the “let them die” argument,) health care providers will die in huge numbers, and one out of five healthy people will require hospitalization when they get Covid-19, huge numbers of them will die or suffer permanent health damage. Especially if we let Covid-19 explode and overwhelm the hospitals. Pretty sure most Americans are going to want to save granny, even if Glenn Beck is throwing his granny to the wolves.

So yeah, just relaxing and letting it happen isn’t going to help. And one should wonder about the motives of anyone who says you should let granny die. We’re not a starving village where the elders sacrifice themselves to save the children. We’re the richest nation the world has ever seen, even Trump himself claims our economy was great. And yes, for America’s giant corporation and the rich, it was a Golden Age. So why the fuck do the richest companies in history need taxpayer bailouts weeks into an economic downturrn? They’ve spent decades buying back their own stock using the tax breaks presidents since Reagan have been giving them, definitely including Trump. Don’t they have plenty of stock to sell? Can’t they borrow money against their fabulous assets?

Of course they could, companies and people already wealthy beyond all reason aren’t going to be hurt if they lose money for a while. Executive bonuses and salaries don’t drive the economy, a guy making ten million a year isn’t going to be hurt if his or her (but usually his) salary drops to one million. Greed is the most powerful force in the Universe though, and America’s corporations view Covid-19 as just another opportunity to exploit. The healthcare industry, people who have turned sick people into commodities, are especially going to profit from Covid-19.

So yeah, the worst crisis in America for a century is unfolding. The worst global crisis since WW2. Millions may die. Who knows where we’re going or what America will look like just a few years from now. And it’s going to get a lot worse in the weeks to come. It’s affecting me, I can’t claim otherwise. So the pandemic is what I will be writing about. It’s what I do. Until the end.

Doug's Darkworld