Extent of Current Economic Crisis Was Made Worse By Our Policies & Practices in Previous Decades

In this video from Redacted Tonight, Lee Camp explains how what he terms “disaster capitalism” has actually made this Covid-19 crisis worse than it otherwise might have been otherwise. 

Yes, Camp argues that the economics that has produced a majority of people in the United States on the edge of an abyss has indeed not only failed to serve the public interest, but in fact has made this disaster a virtual breaking point for many, if not most, of them. We had heard about how a growing percentage of Americans were one disaster away from potential financial disaster, and how most Americans (60 percent, according to recent polls) would not necessarily be able to handle an emergency in the amount of $1,000, and would need to borrow, to go into debt, in order to pay for a $1,000 emergency. 

So what are the ramifications of this now, when we are obviously facing this coronavirus disaster? With 10 million Americans filing for unemployment just over the past two weeks, and with estimated figures of just how bad it might get reaching astronomical proportions – over 32 percent unemployment and 47 million unemployed Americans – now looming, we clearly are facing something unlike anything that this country has faced in recent memory. In fact, since these projections were more extreme even than the Great Depression, where the peak unemployment figures were 24.99 percent, which was reached more or less right in the middle of that economic crisis, than we might be about to enter a situation that this country literally has never reached before. 

Like with the Great Depression, we can blame the era that came before at least partially. After all, Americans almost felt embarrassed by the ‘Roaring Twenties” era that had preceded it. There is a good chance that we as Americans today will feel ashamed of the economic excesses and elitism of recent decades, when we collectively as a nation returned to the same kinds of trickle-down economic policies that had obviously made matters quite dire once the Great Depression began. 

No one can know for sure where we are going, and how bad this crisis is going to be. Perhaps I should not mention it, but what if there is yet another disaster that befalls us in the near future, adding to the misery? During the Great Depression, there were the Dust Bowl days, which dried out farms and which obviously exacerbated the economic situation. It cannot be said that such a scenario will definitely happen again, but can we with equal confidence rule it out as a very real possibility? It would seem irresponsible to think that we should. In fact, if this current crisis has taught us anything, it is that we should prepare for disasters before they happen, and not try and play quick catch-up after the fact, like Donald Trump did by disbanding the White House pandemic team, only to scramble and try and make up for obviously lost time once the extent of the Covid-9 crisis became clear. 

Even then, Trump’s main concern always seems to be how he and his administration are viewed in terms of popularity and re-election chances.