In these days of pandemic isolation, as the world reels from one gut punch to the next, the future looks anything but rosy. While the monied float on their yachts and in their two million dollar isolation rentals in the Hampton’s, the rest of us live in fear and anxiety. For us there is no such thing as a nonessential job when your life depends on that paycheck, or that income if you are a small business owner. Again Nature has assured us that we are NOT in control. Another species has been born that will survive symbiotically inside of us, like the flu and herpes. Mostly killing those about to die and leaving the rest with survivable symptoms or no symptoms at all.
Mankind has entered a long, dark tunnel lined with despair, anxiety and pain; pain witnessing the steady drumroll of Taps being played hundreds of times a day for civilians and military personnel the world over, despair at the thought that there might not be a light at the tunnel’s end, and anxiety as each day we see the diminishing of powers to feed ourselves and to house ourselves while our Assets lose their value.
In crisis like this the rich will get richer and the ranks of the poor will expand in such a way that the inequality of yesterday will seem like socialism tomorrow. Is this inevitable? I say yes. Might it change? To this question I also say yes. Capitalism can save us. How so, you might ask. Because it remains the only system capable of creating wealth by recycling assets and repricing them in the process. It is an ecology for Mankind’s survival. Without it we could be on the road to anarchy. This ecology is apparent in industries like the Airline industry and the Auto industry, veritable ecosystems of their own. It isn’t just the makers of those planes or automobiles, like Boeing and Airbus, or Ford and General Motors—the pilots who fly them and the cabin servers offering chips and drinks, or the administrators who watch over and manage these vast enterprises. It includes the mechanics who maintain the planes, the ground personnel who book tickets and all those people who staff airports and sweep their floors. The Auto industry is the same. It is all those people and their families who livelihoods exist in that ecosystem. Millions upon millions of people. Yes, these industries need a bailout just as much, if not more so, as small businesses do.
Where will the money come from to pay the bill this crisis has created, and how big will that bill ultimately be? So far it’s well over two trillion freshly printed dollars, a reflection of an expanded national debt. The sum could easily double during the next twelve months. If we ever needed capitalism we need it now. How else will this debt be repaid? Without it you will not be able to carry in your pocket the number of dollars required to buy a loaf of bread.
To paraphrase one of the first questions of the Passover Seder…Why is this depression (because that’s where we are headed) different from all other depressions? Technological innovation, among other things, has given us the door to survival and prosperity. Previous depressions were inflexible affairs with little opportunity for the rapid realignment of industries or the creation of new ones. Now we find that a great deal of work can continue virtually uninterrupted from peoples kitchens or home offices. From education to accounting, lawyering to broadcasting, even shopping for everything…all from home. The power of fossil fuel no longer holds us hostage. This crisis might even bring the United States into alignment with the Paris Accords without political intervention. Returning for a moment to the new work-at-home regime. Even when current lockdowns are lifted, and we humans begin to socially interact again, this new regime will stay in place for a number of reasons. Employers won’t forget they can reduce expenses if they don’t have to provide as much desk space (rental expense, governments take note). Employees will benefit from having the extra time formerly consumed by getting to and from work. New businesses will flourish, whether like Zoom (a tech business) or the delivery of goods (in China migrant delivery people earn more that factory workers). From all of this a strengthened middle class will emerge.
The irony of this is that without Trump our pandemic might have crushed us. His blundering, dishonest response has spurred us to action. Not that aspects of our national response haven’t hinted at how far we have fallen. I’m thinking of those individuals and businesses who were willing to forego wearing masks or distancing—a refusal of a disciplined, common sense approach to epidemic containment that amounted to a trashing of true citizenship and universal values. When it is plague time, the biblical admonition, that we are our brother’s keeper takes on a new currency. We either learn to cooperate or we kill each other.