These are scary times in our world. Just days ago, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres suggested that the coronavirus crisis amounts to the "greatest test" for the world since World War II. Indeed, when you look at it, that is exactly how it feels, for that matter.
As of right now while I am writing this, there are well over 1,200,000 cases of people around the world who have contracted the coronavirus. There have been nearly 64,000 deaths from it, while at least one positive is that there have been nearly 247,000 cases where people suffering from Covid-19 have recovered, which is nearly a four-to-one ratio.
Here in the United States, there are more confirmed cases than in any other country. We presently have well over 300,000 people who have contracted Covid-19, which is more than twice that of any other country in terms of confirmed cases. So far, we have seen well over 8,000 deaths. And we are still more or less two weeks away from what most people predict will be the peak of this crisis. On the plus side, there are over 12,000 Americans who have recovered from it.
But most people predict that the worst will be coming in the following weeks.
However, there is another obvious crisis, that clearly is linked to the coronavirus crisis. That would be the economic crisis. Last week, I reported here that over three million Americans (3.3 million, to be precise) filed for unemployment. This week, that number doubled to 6.6 million, which means that 10 million Americans have filed for unemployment in the past two weeks alone. If you look at the bar graph from the NPR article by Avie Schneider that I got some of these figures from (see link below), the number graph is stunning. After many years of fairly stable unemployment numbers, there is suddenly a line that just shoots straight up. That indicates that the economic issues that we are facing right now are already more serious – far more serious – than the so-called “Great Recession” crisis that we saw back in 2008 and into 2009. Here is a picture of the recently released bar graph illustrating the obvious spike in unemployment in just the past two weeks:
How scary is this crisis?
Well, according to an article in Forbes, the Fed declared that 701,000 jobs were lost in a disastrous month of March, the month that Covid-19 really started to hit the United States. They are now predicting 47 million more job losses may be coming, which would result in an over 32 percent unemployment rate. To put that into perspective, that is significantly higher than the unemployment rate at the peak of the Great Depression, which saw a peak unemployment rate of 24.9 in 1933, right in the middle of the Great Depression.
In other words, this is beginning to feel like uncharted territory. Back then, Americans voted in Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who instituted his New Deal policies that invested in massive development policies that helped the country get back on it’s feet, little by little. Of course, there was a major war coming, as Hitler and the Nazis in Germany were doing their best to build the most powerful war machine possible. Soon, Roosevelt would have to contend with the challenges of World War II, but this actually helped the United States come out of the Great Depression, and unified Americans towards the goal of defeating the Axis powers.
Unfortunately, though, that was then, and this is now. We certainly do not have an FDR in the White House right now. Instead, we have someone who seems intent on proudly displaying and promoting his staggering levels of incompetence and irresponsibility, and claiming that his administration’s efforts are basically historically good.
Which brings me to the other crisis that this country faces, one which did not begin being evident in March with Covid-19. This crisis has been known for quite a while, but it has actually been growing just under the surface for decades now. It kind of snuck up on many people, although by no means was it completely unknown. In fact, we had a real leader in the White House once who warned Americans about it. Yes, President Jimmy Carter gave a nationally televised address, which became known as the “Malaise” speech, in which he laid out the moral crisis that was facing the country. Basically, he said that far too many Americans were giving into greed, and that this was going to prove very costly to the country if it was not addressed soon, and if Americans did not collectively reign in their excesses.
At first, the speech was actually well received. But in time, Americans soured on this, and on Jimmy Carter, and voted Ronald Reagan into the White House in a landslide. What followed was the “Me Decade” of the 1980’s. There were major scandals during this time, most notably the Savings and Loan scandal, as well as the Iran-Contragate scandal. But it seems that Americans have grown tired of scandals following a number of scandals which began with the Kennedy assassination and the official Warren Report account of that event, followed by the disastrous Vietnam War, the revelations of the Pentagon Papers, and finally, Watergate. So Americans seemed willing to let Reagan get away with pretty much anything, which earned him the nickname of the “Teflon President.” Meanwhile, unions were attacked, as were worker benefits. The trickledown economic policies of Reagan allowed the rich to get richer, while many others (the majority of us, that is) went quite the other way. Oh, and there was one other thing: an invasion of the tiny island of Grenada, which officially was condemned by the United Nations as “a flagrant violation of international law,” but which received widespread support among Americans.
George H. W. Bush succeeded Reagan, and his role in the Savings and Loan scandal just kind of fizzled. He also led the United States in military actions. Americans learned overnight of the invasion of Panama, and Bush’s approval ratings soared, as Americans expressed their approval. His numbers went even higher when he led the United States to a bigger war against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in Operation Desert Storm. Many of the same trickledown policies of Reagan were continued and strengthened during his term in office, as well.
Bill Clinton was, in many respects, the Democrats answer to Ronald Reagan. He too had tumultuous years filled with scandals, and he too became known as the “real Teflon President.” On many levels, much of the same spirit seen in the elitist policies of the Reagan/Bush era were enhanced under Clinton. He got rid of the Glass-Steagall Act which had separated investment banking from retail banking, opening up the door for future abuses (more on those shortly), and passed very harsh drug laws that effectively made for-profit prison a lucrative business, and where the roots of our overpopulated prison system (we have more prisoners than any other country in the world) began.
Next came George W. Bush, the son of the previous President Bush. And he went to a more extreme version of the same trickledown policies championed by Reagan and his father. There were military operations during his term in office. In fact, they may have defined his presidency, as he sought out war with Iraq not long after the September 11th attacks, even though Iraq had nothing to do with the attacks. Afghanistan did, and we fought a war there, too. However, both wars began to go badly, and while initial approval ratings for both were high, they both dropped significantly as the wars dragged on. Bush himself enjoyed high approval ratings following the September 11th attacks, but his numbers sank, as well. But not before he got a second term, during which the United States saw more economic scandals. There had been Enron early in Bush’s first term, but that seemed almost small potatoes compared to Halliburton, Blackwater, and those “no bid” contracts in Iraq. And, of course, there were all of those loaning institutions that got into big trouble because of their subprime loans (remember those?). What followed was a financial meltdown that threatened to become a much wider crisis. There was talk that it could become a depression, but it came to be known as the “Great Recession.” I remember seeing tent cities in the woods on my way to work. The economic inequality gap continued to grow, as the rich grew richer, at the expense of the rest of us.
Barack Obama was supposed to be a breath of fresh air from all of that. Remember the optimism when he first came in? Yet, his first term in office was labeled by some as George W. Bush’s third term, as he kept many of Bush’s elitist economic policies, including the tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans. He also had voted in favor of the economic bailout which helped corporations, rather than ordinary Americans, and he did not go after those corporations who took much of that money and handed rewards to their CEO’s and Board members, even when many of these same elitist officials were responsible for the economic meltdown that had caused the bailout to begin with. Obama launched military strikes on other countries, and he did not end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He clearly seemed to like drone strikes, and earned the dubious distinction of being the only Nobel Peace Prize winner to bomb another Nobel Peace Prize winner. Oh, and he spied on our European allies, something that obviously did not sit well with the leaders of those countries.
Now, we have Donald Trump. The moral crisis (yes, Carter was right about that) saw Americans sinking low enough to put in the most narcissistic, selfish, immature man possible into our highest office. What followed was incredible levels of polarization, as Trump’s polarizing brand of politics divided Americans more strongly, and increasingly more violently, than ever before. Trump seemed to side with literal Nazis at one point, and there were numerous other incidents where Trump came across as quite blatantly racist. He broke international treaties, and seemed to send the United States backwards by denying the science of climate change and pulling the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord. He also favored corporations and made weakened environmental legislation, almost endorsing increased pollution by corporations. He went farther than Reagan or the Bushes with tax cuts and benefits to the wealthiest Americans, and the gap between rich and poor grew even wider still. The budget for the military industrial complex soared. And then came the coronavirus, followed by the current economic crisis. Trump mishandled the Covid-19 crisis, as I have mentioned before. But he also seemed far more concerned about stock market numbers than he was about the coronavirus crisis. And now, just as the country is facing it’s gravest situation in decades, Trump is cutting food stamp programs, and still in court trying to kill Obamacare, even though doing this would throw out tens of millions of Americans from their health insurance.
What does he get for all of this? Days ago, he reached his highest approval ratings, at 49 percent. Even more stunning was that 60 percent of Americans approved of Trump’s handling of the coronavirus, even though he has consistently downplayed the crisis until it grew into a major crisis, and then consistently has given misleading information. Plus, again, he is trying to cut benefits to Americans at a time when they are needed the most.
To add to that, there are rumors and conspiracy theories all over the place. There is no seeming national consensus on what approach to take, as some states have taken serious measures, while others seem to cater to the coronavirus deniers. Yes, plenty of people believe that this is all a conspiracy, that this was something designed to make Trump look bad (as if he needed any help with that). I have heard some people claiming that this is all political. One boss at my weekend job claimed that in two weeks, we would all be laughing at this whole thing. That was two weeks ago today. Do you see anyone laughing yet?
Well, actually, I have. I saw some people using laughing emojis when casualty figures were posted on Facebook. Others continue to either deny it or undermine the significance of this crisis, claiming that the Swine Flu crisis under Obama was worse, yet received less hype. Many of the people who deny how severe this Covid-19 crisis is actually seem to applaud their own piercing intellect for seeing through this whole “Fake News” media hype, and look down on anyone who is taking this seriously.
All of this says something about our country. Frankly, this is at once depressing, sobering, and scary to think about. And that is why I think the situation in this country will grow worse before it ever gets better. At least until we find some unifying mission or purpose, assuming we ever do. And assuming that we do not destroy ourselves, and our country, before that ever has a chance of happening.
World & Individual National Statistics on Coronavirus Cases Taken From Woldometer:
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
Here is the link to the Forbes article mentioned above, which shows how many jobs have been lost already, and the truly dire and, frankly, staggering projections of possible number of job losses to come in the future:
U.S. Economy Lost 701,000 Jobs In March—Fed Economists Predict 47 Million More Job Losses by Jack Kelly, April 3, 2020:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2020/04/03/us-economy-lost-701000-jobs-in-march-fed-economists-predict-47-million-more-jobs-losses/#58af2987768f
The pictured bar graph, as well as some statistical information used in this blog entry, were taken from this NPR article from April 2, 2020:
Staggering: Record 10 Million File For Unemployment In 2 Weeks by Avie Schneider, April 2, 2020:
https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/04/02/825383525/6-6-million-file-for-unemployment-another-dismal-record
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