The new Corona virus (Covid-19) does not represent the first epidemic disease to which mankind is exposed, and it will not be the last for sure, but what is certain is that its effects will exceed expectations and the usual effects of all transient disease, this time more than others is related to the complications related to the economic system The prevailing social world, obsessed with profit and capital accumulation, and the mechanisms of our management of our material life; what makes Corona a closer challenge to a civilizational challenge, not just a disease or a pandemic we await for prayer, as it opens wide doors for changes in the general social view of economic issues, which is what we will seek to read its dimensions through This is a To report.
A civilization challenge: more than just disease!
Racist comments and "Mims" satirical roam the Internet and social networks about the strange meals of the Chinese that surprised the world by including unfamiliar types of animals such as bats, rodents, insects and worms, which reinforced some of the assumptions that these practices are the origin of the current Corona epidemic, which spelled one of the official accounts That its origin is due to a strange meal in which the estimates ranged between the bat and the scaly anteater!
Some are satisfied with linking these practices to cultural roots and historical backgrounds, without awareness that they are only part of a much broader framework that came in the context of the disease, a climate change situation that has raised many warnings and controversies over the past decades, and that makes the disease an indication of a state of a comprehensive cultural challenge, not just Transient health crisis.
| "Big Farms Generates Fierce Flu" by Rob Wallace |
Where biologist Rob Wallace, in his book on the role of large farms in creating new generations of influenza, published in 2016 (1), says that the Corona virus (as a whole family of viruses, including the current virus), has emerged due to the diversion of some forests that represented systems Complete environmental conditions to agricultural lands and farms for animal husbandry and poultry on a large industrial scale, and with the genetic similarities between those animals and their wild counterparts that lived in these forests, the immune dams between them and each other, and then between them and man, gradually fell due to weak immunity resulting from crowds and large production. To that animal The new ecosystems, and the environment that they represented, are a suitable environment for viruses to move back and forth between them and indigenous wild animals (2), partly in accordance with the novel novel transmission of the current corona virus (COFED-19) between pasture pig and bat, and not inconsistent with the account of its transmission from A wild animal was sold in a market in the Chinese city of Wuhan. The explanation is correct in both directions, centered on the weakening of the immune dams between wild and domestic animals and humans, because of that environmental change.
According to Wallace, the matter reaches what he considered an alliance between large farms and influenza, and here we are talking about a dichotomy that makes disease, first through the great capitalist production pattern centered on creating profits by expanding its accumulation indefinitely, even if in order to achieve those profits depends on methods Harmful productivity creates favorable conditions for the emergence and spread of new diseases, and the second is the environmental imbalances resulting from the aforementioned profit accumulation craving, which led to the imbalance of the relationship between man and the environment, and more generally climate change, which led - as well - to the emergence of new diseases such as corona and SARS, and the return of old diseases Like Malaria, tuberculosis and tropical diseases, and a long list of what is known viral zombie (3) and bacterial diseases buried in the snow (4).
The foregoing means that the matter goes beyond being a mere transient health symptom, but rather is a product of an existing structure and work system, in a way that will push it to repeat during a long period of time, and progressively, and in view of its effects, and the limitations of the current capitalist framework in confronting it; we are talking in practice of a civilized threat, not Just a health problem.
The Neoliberal Model of Life: The Cows of Sacred Capitalism
A quick look at the basic pillars of the capitalist system may suffice to tell us about the structural roots of the current situation, and how it relates to the problem of corona and the complexities of its solution, especially in its neoliberal form prevailing since the mid-1970s.
First, the capitalist system is based on a profit incentive, linked to the leadership of the private sector of economic activity in all its aspects, so the objectives of allocating resources to needs, production of goods and services, and the distribution of social output through profit incentives, and the interaction of supply and demand forces, are shown generally and practically in linking the interest of society In the interest of the private sector, and indeed achieving it mainly through it, what is evident in the governmental policies that always push firmly to save the economy by supporting the private sector and its wealthy owners, leaving the poor to the integrity and generosity of that private sector and its rich people in transferring the effects of those packages to them, as well, and most importantly, from During the domination of narrow profit accounts and considerations over other social accounts and considerations, in a way that produced and prevailed a kind of short-term narrow-minded economic rationality over the broader and longer-term priorities of social rationality, the issue of climate change is only one example.
Second, capital seeks constant accumulation, linked to the goal of "growth for growth" at the level of countries and societies, or the obsession with the famous "GDP" index, which assumes endless capacity for economic growth and expansion of consumption, regardless of the limits of natural resources and the needs of environmental balance. What violated the relationship of exchange between man and the environment, until what was known as the ecological divide that reflects the imbalance of this exchange and balance relationship between the two parties, to which he had been warned early on, the famous report of “limits of growth” issued by the Club of Rome in 1972, and followed by a series of reports Others, to emphasize the need for balance between h Population needs, economic growth, on the one hand, consumption, resources, and environmental balance, on the other, warns that "economics will not go beyond nature" (5).
Third, stock exchanges and banks, or financial and banking capital in other form, dominated the capitalist economy and its trends for nearly a century, and its dominance was strengthened with the rise of neoliberalism since the seventies, so that its indicators became at the forefront of indicators of prosperity and economic collapse and the most important among governments and the media, for trillions governments pumping times Crises, as a cornerstone of economic stability, while in reality they are largely separated from the real economy (i.e. the real productive economy from agriculture, industry, and services), along with speculative control and hot capital over them, suffer from fragile training It has the potential to collapse with any shake-up, and the entire economy is in progress with it, as the situation of capitalist economies has become like an inverted pyramid standing on its head with a difficult and illogical balance, so the value of securities such as stocks, bonds and other instruments exceeding the true value of the tangible assets that they are supposed to represent from property In kind and productive capital, in other words, fake financial debts accumulate without real financial compensation (relying solely on confidence in them and promises of repayment when demand); what makes any vibration in their relationship backs the whole economy with huge fluctuations that may lead to the financial and real economies together.
Fourth, capitalism is characterized by being a global system by its nature, so it needs continuous expansion and division of labor internationally; what makes international trade one of its most important pillars, so that many theorists do not see globalization as something new, but merely a strengthening of the global tendency inherent in capitalism since its inception, facilitated And the scope of the communications revolution expanded no more, this international trade whose theories go back to the era of the first theorists of capitalism, Adam Smith (and his theory of absolute commercial advantage), David Ricardo (and his theory of comparative commercial advantage), as interpretations and theoretical foundations of the advantages of international trade on The division of labor holiday and efficient use of resources in general and global prosperity, and on the basis of liberal economists called always to deepen integration in the international market, and the futility of the efforts of self-sufficiency, and damage to building national industries is unnecessary, etc. from theorizations and letters of liberal traditional international capital organizations.
These four components can be considered the sacred cows of capitalism, as they are the most important components of it, if not exclusively, and these components have been intertwined with the crisis of Corona directly or indirectly, either creating them on the aforementioned, through the role of the private sector and the profit incentive in establishing farms Large scale and contribute to climate change, or affected by, as will be shown by a brief survey of the most important economic and social impacts of the Corona crisis.
Sacred Things Fall: The Long-term Economic and Social Impact of Corona
Initial estimates indicate billions of losses as direct effects of the outbreak of corona, which are logical and expected losses of magnitude with its spread in the group of countries that represent the most important and largest centers of the global economy and the rules and joints of global value and supply chains, which represent 60% of supply and demand, 65% of industrial production, and 41% Of industrial exports, as well as these losses are linked to very important economic sectors such as industry, trade, tourism, oil, and others.
On the level of these direct effects, a recent paper by Martin Eichenbaum and others (6) indicates that the emergence of the emerging Corona virus imposes a mandatory short-term exchange between the possibility of severe recession due to the epidemic and the high health and human losses it has, so that decision-makers must balance the two options, either In the medium term, the costs of bankruptcies, the stagnant effects of unemployment, and supply and supply chain shocks will affect overall economic performance, supported by a different entry. A more comprehensive study on the economic effects of epidemics (7) had been issued on the occasion of the HIV epidemic in Africa, where its writer Maureen Lewis Epidemics have the characteristic of the "public good", which affects society as a whole and requires general intervention from the state, to prevent its effects that affect economic and political stability, it impedes economic growth that is reflected in government revenues and expenditures, and it also reduces the incomes and expenditures of the family sector, leading to more From the popular dependence on government support that is already threatened, which leads in its entirety to a vicious cycle of economic stagnation, social decline and overall political turmoil.
And on the importance of the direct effects of the foregoing, the most important thing really remains, and what we care about here more than others is what can be explored from the long-term structural effects, which touches the rules and mechanisms of the basic system in particular, and here we find many conflicting opinions for experts of various disciplines, but it overcomes Agreeing on some strategic economic and social impacts if the Corona crisis drags on for up to a year or a year and a half, as you see some expectations, the most important of which are:
First: A significant decline in public confidence in the private sector and the primacy of the logic of profit in basic social sectors, such as health and scientific research, which confirmed the danger of leaving it to the private sector with the potential for health systems to collapse even in the most advanced and prosperous countries, and the emergence of weak public preparedness in front of the potential for epidemics rapidly spreading.
Second: A strong jolt in faith in the efficacy and durability of the international trade system, supply chains and the large and complex global value, whose risks and fragility have been demonstrated by the emergence of a medium-threat threat such as the current Corona virus, so that many countries will return to interest in providing a minimum level of self-sufficiency in strategic goods, and build rules Established for its basic sectors, to be prepared for any similar turmoil in international trade that impedes the movement of commodities between countries.
Third: Trends of closure and the strengthening of nation-states, supported by the experience of countries now with their tendency for individual solutions and weak international cooperation, even within the largest and most successful regional blocs, such as the European Union, which have emerged from some of its countries bitter complaints of isolation and non-cooperation and the delusion of European brotherhood, and even directed a lot Of them to seek assistance and cooperation from China in place of that powerless European partnership.
Fourth: Large agricultural and animal production methods will change, along with patterns of food consumption and health requirements, and scientific research programs that are intertwined with their social and environmental aspects will be strengthened, bypassing the current sufficiency of direct production and cost considerations; on the one hand it means a greater role and deeper interference by the state in its organization and work, On the other hand, there is relatively less weight for short-term profit considerations in favor of broader human, social and environmental safety considerations, to avoid a recurrence of the emerging Corona virus scenario, especially as it bypasses the impact and danger of its former predecessors such as SARS and MERS.
Work patterns will change, and the trend to benefit from modern technologies for remote work will increase, especially after its expansion and practical and compulsory experience in the midst of the crisis.
Fifth: Fears of massive financial and banking hegemony will increase, with the related economic fragility that threatens rapid collapse always with every actual supply or demand shock or just for investment concerns, and in connection with this, a partial decline in the dominance of monetary policies and central banks is likely to prevail over policies. Economic policies of most of the world’s governments since the seventies in favor of the return of financial policies (government revenues and expenditures) and the rise of income policies (related to the structure of wages and income in general and subsidies and the like).
Sixth: The consumerism that has prevailed since the 1970s may partially subside, with the painful experience of stagnation, interruption of incomes and loss of job security, so that savings tendencies and “Minimalism” tendencies or reduce consumption and purchase as much as possible, fears similar crises that go beyond being just traditional economic crises because they are interrupted crises Full of life, as well as by virtue of what the people will learn and habits from the long crisis period, even if they temporarily raise their consumption as a form of compensation after the crisis has ended.
Seventh: Work patterns will change, and the trend to benefit from modern technologies for remote work will increase, especially after its expansion and practical and compulsory experience in the midst of the crisis, and the advantages that it will show to companies and workers alike, as well as the transportation, movement and infrastructure costs borne by governments.
New styles and a different outlook on life
Given all these changes, we can conclude that the potential for some qualitative shifts in social consciousness, i.e. shifts at the level of ideology in line with the mentioned economic and social transformations, opens up the doors to real and broader changes throughout our lives, it is the new vision of the economy that Corona can give us. It will often include radical changes in attitudes toward the sacred cows of capitalism.
First , calls for the aforementioned growth limits report are very likely to gain more acceptance at the expense of the “growth for growth” ideology associated with the continuous accumulation of capital, after simple samples of the risks of environmental imbalance and climate change resulting from it appear on the one hand, and with the experience of forced isolation Temporary suspension from work, on the other hand, will show with more clarity the importance of adopting a realistic horizon for economic growth and consumer expansion, as well as new capabilities for people related to reducing the day and week of work, especially with what may consist of new consumer habits that are more rational and balanced.
Second , governments may turn to more control over their domestic markets, achieve a degree of self-sufficiency, shorten their supply chains from abroad, and reduce the dominance of financial capital and the role of stock exchanges and hot money to reduce the risks and fragility related to them, as well as reduce the dominance of the private sector and the profit incentive over sectors Humanitarian and social strategy in favor of more general social good on them.
Third , and last but not least, a contradictory awareness of the universality of the capitalist system will grow. On the one hand, the nation-state will regain some of its strength and importance in the short term, international cooperation will decline and perhaps international trade and the freedom of capital movement will diminish in part, but on the other hand, awareness of the importance of coordination will increase Files in files with global transboundary effects. However, this potential change in our view of the economy will not suffice to cause a parallel change in our reality with him, as this requires social action and power balances, and in general, popular struggles that may not accumulate enough forces for them in the foreseeable future, even if the new view remains an important step on its path.