Written By:
Bill - Date published:
6:04 am, April 3rd, 2020 - 7 comments
Categories: covid-19, economy, human rights, International, political alternatives, Politics, Social issues -
Tags: capital, government, policy, society
In the space of two short weeks, almost 10 million people in the USA have lost their jobs and health care coverage.
Meanwhile, in less dire news, loan and credit card repayments are to be frozen for the next three months in the UK.
Now, I can’t be the only one observing current events with the idea that I’m witnessing something undergo an irreparable smashing apart. My minds eye imagines the “movers, shakers and decision makers” of this world flailing and grasping in a forlorn state of strange angst – much like what you or I might display in the moment when that last drink of the night is in the process of being knocked off the table, or the ice cream, fumbled from our grasp and is heading towards the pavement.
As things smash apart, I just wonder if politicians and others are going to use any rapidly diminishing power at their disposal to see to it that as many of us as possible avoid any unnecessary shrapnel, or whether, in the service of some “greater purpose” our lives and well being will be viewed as just so much collateral damage?
My internal jury remains somewhat out as I scan the very early stages of governments around the world rolling out various policies, and try to pick what the final general direction of travel might be.
Bear in mind though, that’s being said in the wee small hours breathing in the smell of freshly baked bread, and not in any cold grey light of dawn. And I know that power generally has just one objective…
The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
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The Cotton Needs Pickin…so bad.
We now have nothing at all shielding us from the world's employment devastation except two people:
Jacinda Ardern and Grant Robertson.
“They are no longer singing or dancing on the balconies,” said Salvatore Melluso, a priest at Caritas Diocesana di Napoli, a church-run charity in Naples. “Now people are more afraid – not so much of the virus, but of poverty. Many are out of work and hungry. There are now long queues at food banks.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/01/singing-stops-italy-fear-social-unrest-mount-coronavirus-lockdown
More nails in the brick-and-mortar coffin.
https://twitter.com/gregpmiller/status/1244992803563806725
Funny that the peasants revolt came in the wake of the plague.
And here we are.
In the wake of a plague?
I kind of see consumerism as a plague.