Disaster Capitalism

The Corona pandemic acts like a magnifying glass on capitalism; the ironclad laws of supply and demand go haywire in a crisis situation like this, when fear drives up demand to astronomic highs, causing prices to do the same.

_{Image by Mike Licht - source: Flickr}

I bet many of you, dear readers, have seen the value of your crypto-portfolio take a serious hit these last days, just like all big stock market exchanges around the world. One positive thing I've seen in all of this, is that the Corona virus has acted like a huge advertisement for decentralization; right now we're all made very aware of the fact that the supply lines for many vital products all start in China, and we're all depending on that country for many of the medicines we need right now. In my workplace we have a shortage of mobile phones right now, because they're all produced in China. This is not to lay blame, just to remind us how vulnerable the world economy is when all production is concentrated in one part of the globe. Besides the free advertisement for decentralization though, I can detect no more positives...

What we're seeing right now is "disaster capitalism" in action. What that means is that governments use crisis situations as an opportunity to pass measures and laws they could never have passed under normal circumstances. In 2008 Rahm Emanuel, Obama's chief of staff, literally said: "You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before." A national crisis affects the population like shock-therapy affects an individual; citizens are excessively distracted (emotionally and physically) to engage and develop an adequate response, and resist effectively. A great example of this dynamic is what happened after the 9/11 attacks; the American government greatly increased their executive powers and introduced the monstrosity called the Patriot Act. Joe Biden and other establishment politicians on both sides have been calling for an invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, among other oil- and mineral rich countries, since 1998; 9/11 gave them a golden opportunity to make that a reality without having to worry about popular resistance.

Here's a good article digging deeper into how this particular crisis could be used by the powers that be: Coronavirus Is the Perfect Disaster for ‘Disaster Capitalism’

These are the perfect conditions for governments and the global elite to implement political agendas that would otherwise be met with great opposition if we weren’t all so disoriented. This chain of events isn’t unique to the crisis sparked by the coronavirus; it’s the blueprint politicians and governments have been following for decades known as the “shock doctrine,” a term coined by activist and author Naomi Klein in a 2007 book of the same name.
_{source: Vice}

_{Rahm Emanuel on the Opportunities of Crisis}

Trump has just declared the Corona pandemic a National Emergency and has immediately used the resulting executive powers to take economic measures, supposedly to aide the population in this crisis situation. But his proposed payroll tax cut is worthless for someone who loses their job; this is beneficial primarily for employers, not for employees. Looking one layer deeper, these taxes are the very taxes used to finance the overhead caused by emergencies like this, reducing the governments capability to adequately respond in future emergencies. In his initial address Trump lied about having reached an agreement with the insurance industry; he said treatment would be free, when the insurance companies promised no such thing, only the tests, of which there is a serious shortage, would be free.

This crisis will be used to take away more freedoms for the population, and to increase the powers of the corporate owned government; that's also an ironclad law. Also, this crisis comes during the primaries and might have an effect on that process as well, it most probably will. Bernie Sanders needs something remarkable to happen, but I doubt this crisis qualifies as helpful for him; watch the below video for an interesting discussion on that. If Biden wins however, and if he becomes the next president, it will be because Trump fails in responding adequately to this crisis and because the economy will have crashed. And with Biden in the White House, the handling of that economic crisis will be turned over to Wall Street, just like it happened under Obama; the same neoliberals who only increased the debts that were the cause of the first meltdown, will again do everything possible to rescue the banks and big industries, and will again leave the people standing in the cold...

_{Panel: Can Biden handle a two-hour debate?}

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