The United States is the richest country in the world. So what?
Under normal circumstances, one would expect repulsion at the fact that Jeff Bezos, head of Amazon, makes $150,000 per minute, more than triple the median ANNUAL income of U.S. workers. Or that 20% of Americans own 80% of the wealth. Or that 40 million Americans don't have enough to eat, even in "good" times.
But in a pandemic, with more than 500 people a day dying in New York from Covid-19; with Detroit making it official policy to DENY treatment to its sickest residents; with 6.6 million Americans filing for unemployment last week, and the St. Louis Fed predicting 50 million unemployed by July; the contradictions of capitalism, the greed and disregard for human life, should be obvious to everyone.
Take Amazon, which continues to force its employees to work with minimal or no PPE, the majority for $15/hour poverty wages, while at least 10 of their facilities have confirmed outbreaks of Covid-19. They also just fired an employee in Staten Island for leading a walk-out.
Trump has responded to the crisis by giving trillions of dollars to Wall Street and demanding we all go back to work, claiming the consequences of sheltering in place are far worse than the disease itself. Trillions for Wall Street and Corporate America, and pennies for working Americans and the rebuilding of our medical infrastructure. Not surprisingly, America's cities are desperately unprepared for the coming wave of infections and demand for ICU and ER beds.
A survey done by the U.S. Conference of Mayors on Friday (3/27/20), found that:
The U.S. has far more Nobel laureates in Physiology & Medicine than any other country (93, compared with the UK, #2, with only 29), by far the greatest share of Pharmaceutical R&D expenditures in the world (over 60% of all Pharma R&D is done by US companies, see graph above). One would think we'd be better prepared.
Not under the logic of capitalism, where hospitals maximize profits by ensuring that few, if any, beds are left open for emergencies like this one; where the number of U.S. companies producing flu vaccine (which kills 10-60,000 Americans per year, and continues to do so along side Covid-19), has gone down from 37, in 1976, to only 7, today because it is not profitable; where nearly 1 in 4 workers have no paid sick leave and have to continue working when sick so they don't get evicted or starve, potentially exposing and sickening their coworkers; where millions of Americans still lack health insurance, despite the Affordable Care Act; where we let 259,000 Americans die each year from preventable or treatable causes because it's more profitable for business to do so.
Under normal circumstances, one would expect repulsion at the fact that Jeff Bezos, head of Amazon, makes $150,000 per minute, more than triple the median ANNUAL income of U.S. workers. Or that 20% of Americans own 80% of the wealth. Or that 40 million Americans don't have enough to eat, even in "good" times.
But in a pandemic, with more than 500 people a day dying in New York from Covid-19; with Detroit making it official policy to DENY treatment to its sickest residents; with 6.6 million Americans filing for unemployment last week, and the St. Louis Fed predicting 50 million unemployed by July; the contradictions of capitalism, the greed and disregard for human life, should be obvious to everyone.
Take Amazon, which continues to force its employees to work with minimal or no PPE, the majority for $15/hour poverty wages, while at least 10 of their facilities have confirmed outbreaks of Covid-19. They also just fired an employee in Staten Island for leading a walk-out.
Trump has responded to the crisis by giving trillions of dollars to Wall Street and demanding we all go back to work, claiming the consequences of sheltering in place are far worse than the disease itself. Trillions for Wall Street and Corporate America, and pennies for working Americans and the rebuilding of our medical infrastructure. Not surprisingly, America's cities are desperately unprepared for the coming wave of infections and demand for ICU and ER beds.
A survey done by the U.S. Conference of Mayors on Friday (3/27/20), found that:
- 92% of U.S. cities lack sufficient Covid-19 test kits
- 91.5% have insufficient masks for 1st responders & medical staff
- 88% said they lacked enough other PPE for these workers (gloves, gowns, etc)
- 85% do not have enough ventilators
- 62.4% said they have NOT received any emergency medical supplies from their state governments
The U.S. has far more Nobel laureates in Physiology & Medicine than any other country (93, compared with the UK, #2, with only 29), by far the greatest share of Pharmaceutical R&D expenditures in the world (over 60% of all Pharma R&D is done by US companies, see graph above). One would think we'd be better prepared.Not under the logic of capitalism, where hospitals maximize profits by ensuring that few, if any, beds are left open for emergencies like this one; where the number of U.S. companies producing flu vaccine (which kills 10-60,000 Americans per year, and continues to do so along side Covid-19), has gone down from 37, in 1976, to only 7, today because it is not profitable; where nearly 1 in 4 workers have no paid sick leave and have to continue working when sick so they don't get evicted or starve, potentially exposing and sickening their coworkers; where millions of Americans still lack health insurance, despite the Affordable Care Act; where we let 259,000 Americans die each year from preventable or treatable causes because it's more profitable for business to do so.
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