Greed is the problem, not the solution, for vaccine woes

‘On the anniversary of the United Kingdom’s first lockdown of the coronavirus pandemic, as candles were lit in doorways and the country mourned 125,000 deaths, the prime minister was in the mood for gloating. “The reason we have the vaccine success is because of capitalism, because of greed my friends,” Boris Johnson reportedly told Conservative MPs, before pleading “forget I said that”.

‘The AstraZeneca jab was actually developed by scientists from the University of Oxford, a publicly-funded institution, working with scientists from a range of backgrounds, including many educated in state schools. Those scientists had initially wanted to make their vaccine patent-free, before AstraZeneca entered the scene, effectively privatising the research.

‘The vaccines have been brought to market thanks to tens of thousands of trial volunteers who risked their health by putting themselves forward, not out of greed, but out of a desire to end this pandemic and help their families and communities. And the rollout is being managed by the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), a world-class public healthcare system that, despite market-driven reforms in recent years, exists entirely outside the logic of the market.

‘Greed, however, drove Big Pharma companies to privatise vaccines developed with public resources, and patent lifesaving medicines, in an effort to keep a grip on their monopolies. As a result, pharmaceutical giants sold these jabs almost exclusively to rich countries, allowing the UK to secure enough doses to vaccinate its population three times over.’

Read here (Aljazeera, Mar 24, 2021)

Cuban socialist internationalist medicine puts capitalist countries to shame: Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford

‘So few of its own citizens have [died from] Covid-19 – less than 300 — that Cuba must test its vaccines in other countries, said Dr Layla Brown-Vincent, professor of Africana Studies at the University of Massachusetts at Boston and author of “The Pandemic of Racial Capitalism: Another World is Possible.” Cuba “is helping control this global pandemic in ways that none of the capitalist countries attempt to do,” said Brown-Vincent.’

Listen here (Defend Democracy Press, Mar 22, 2021)

Rebuilding a better, post-Covid-19 world with a new mindset of stakeholders: WEF founder Klaus Schwab

‘World War II was a time of great crisis and hardship, which forged a sense of solidarity that helped pull ravaged communities together. "To a certain extent, we are in a similar situation today...we went through a major crisis, which affected everybody in the world," says the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

‘He is also here for the launch of his new book, Stakeholder Capitalism: A Global Economy That Works For Progress, People And Planet, which he has written with a WEF colleague, Mr Peter Vanham...

‘Indeed the stakeholder concept has featured prominently in his work since the 1973 Davos Manifesto, which set out the role of business managements to "serve clients, shareholders, workers and employees, as well as societies, and to harmonise the different interests of the stakeholders".

‘It is a theme he delves into deeper in his new book. "The idea that we need to rebuild differently post-Covid is widely shared. The sudden and all-encompassing impact of Covid-19 made us understand, much more than the gradual effects of climate change or increasing inequality, that an economic system driven by selfish and short-term interests is not sustainable...’

Read here (Straits Times, Feb 10, 2021)

Has capitalism turned the COVID-19 emergency into a disaster?

‘Exploit it’ - Protect the People or the Profit? ‘We were in a crisis before COVID-19 - a crisis of capitalism. Join Ali Rae in this first episode of “Al Hail The Lockdown” - a 5 part series exploring the complexities of our global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this episode, Ali speaks with filmmaker and activist Astra Taylor, economist Aditya Chakrabortty and economic sociologist Linsey McGoey about disaster capitalism, philanthro-capitalism and how the structures of capitalism have left us ill-equipped to deal with the fallout of COVID-19.’

View here (Aljazeera, Nov 24, 2020) 

What Covid-19 reveals about twenty-first century capitalism: Adversity and opportunity

‘Twenty-first century capitalism features financialization and monopoly power. A structural perspective of contemporary political economy illuminates how these aspects shape the COVID-19 response. COVID-19 has exposed failures across health care systems, working conditions, supply chains, the depth of inequality, systemic racism, and features of globalization that exacerbate negative outcomes for the many. Examining access to medicines, personal protective equipment and vaccines, inequality and working conditions highlights just some of what is broken and what needs to be fixed. The unsparing challenge and immiseration of COVID-19 offer an opportunity to re-think basic structures of contemporary capitalism and re-imagine a more compassionate future.’

Read here (Springer, Nov 20, 2020)

Pope says capitalism failed humanity during coronavirus pandemic

“The fragility of world systems in the face of the pandemic has demonstrated that not everything can be resolved by market freedom... It is imperative to have a proactive economic policy directed at ‘promoting an economy that favors productive diversity and business creativity’ and makes it possible for jobs to be created, not cut.” The pope also restated the past calls for the redistribution of wealth, saying those with much should “administer it for the good of all.” But he clarified that he was “not proposing an authoritarian and abstract universalism.”

Read here (DW, Oct 4, 2020)

Capitalism after the pandemic: Getting the recovery right

‘Governments also need to consider how to use the returns on their investments to promote a more equitable distribution of income. This is not about socialism; it is about understanding the source of capitalistic profits. The current crisis has led to renewed discussions about a universal basic income, whereby all citizens receive an equal regular payment from the government, regardless of whether they work. The idea behind this policy is a good one, but the narrative would be problematic. Since a universal basic income is seen as a handout, it perpetuates the false notion that the private sector is the sole creator, not a co-creator, of wealth in the economy and that the public sector is merely a toll collector, siphoning off profits and distributing them as charity.

‘A better alternative is a citizen’s dividend. Under this policy, the government takes a percentage of the wealth created with government investments, puts that money in a fund, and then shares the proceeds with the people. The idea is to directly reward citizens with a share of the wealth they have created...

‘A citizen’s dividend allows the proceeds of co-created wealth to be shared with the larger community—whether that wealth comes from natural resources that are part of the common good or from a process, such as public investments in medicines or digital technologies, that has involved a collective effort. Such a policy should not serve as a substitute for getting the tax system to work right. Nor should the state use the lack of such funds as an excuse to not finance key public goods. But a public fund can change the narrative by explicitly recognizing the public contribution to wealth creation—key in the political power play between forces.’

Read here (Foreign Affairs, Oct 2, 2020) 

The post-capitalist hit of the summer

‘The pandemic has reinforced that which has been undermining the foundation of capitalism since 2008: the link between profit and capital accumulation. The current crisis has revealed a post-capitalist economy in which the markets for real goods and services no longer coordinate economic decision-making, the current Technostructure (comprising Big Tech and Wall Street) manipulates behavior at an industrial scale, and the demos is ostracized from our democracies.’

Read here (Project Syndicate, August 31, 2020)

The coronavirus' next victim? Capitalism

‘The pandemic has deftly illustrated two lessons that we, as a civilization, must learn in order to survive: (1) Science does not care about your political ideology. (2) The economic status quo — namely, free market capitalism — is fatally flawed, in ways that the coronavirus pandemic has brought to light.’

Read here (Salon, June 7, 2020)

Ray Dalio discusses depression economics and what to expect

Ray Dalio, "Global Macro Investor", philanthropist and founder of the world's largest hedge fund, understands deeply the inner workings of the world economy. In this 52-minute interview with Corey Hajim and Chris Anderson of TED, he mentions the following:

1. The world is going through a massive stress test, akin to the 1930s, when there would be widespread economic collapse, money printing and subsequent restructuring. Wealth will be redistributed but the levers of power will decide how it would be (within nations and internationally). This will cause a lot of friction, even wars.
2. Even today, there is demonisation of "others" even if they are being helpful. For example, while China is helping many countries, anyone holding such views can be ostracised in the US.
3. It is an opportunity to reform capitalism to create more equal opportunities, greater harmony, more innovation and more productivity via universal education.
4. Companies that win will be those that provide basic needs and those that are adaptive and creative. Algorithmic thinking, especially in investment, will give way to more human interventions and creative input.
5. For the individual investor, he calls for humility and diversification, and not to try to time the market. Cash, he stresses, is not good investment.

View here (TED, April 9, 2020)