This is a fantastic visual illustration of the colonial world system.

  • Nagarjuna [he/him]
    hexagon
    ·
    4 years ago

    Honest to goodness I dont think it's structural. I think it's Biden's death drive making him try to become a memorable president.

    • Pezevenk [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Nah I'm pretty sure soemthing like that wouldn't be said just because Biden wants it. I think it might really be that they got scared by India. Its true that pharma doesn't really want the pandemic to end, and it's true that some other industries don't either, but there is also a huge block of powerful industries which does want it, and the governments generally try to do a balancing game. It may also have to do with the fact that China has dealt with covid and is growing fast, unlike the US and their allies, so that's even more incentive to end it. Finally it might be part of the strategy to gain back influence at the world stage.

      Again I don't know, I no longer follow American politics as much and I haven't read enough about it to be sure but I think something like that may be the reason.

      • DasKarlBarx [he/him,comrade/them]
        ·
        4 years ago

        I think you nailed it.

        The India strain scared them because a vaccine resistant strain could honestly spell the end of the US as it is. Another necessary shutdown would be resisted by the business class even harder. Then just leaving things open would wipe out a bunch of the population.

        Then you have Russia & China giving out their vaccines to countries and actually helping them instead of extorting them like the global north is looking to.

        • Pezevenk [he/him]
          ·
          4 years ago

          Then just leaving things open would wipe out a bunch of the population.

          That's not their main concern, since covid is not deadly enough to wipe out a significant percentage of the working population or anything like that, however the fear that comes with a surge makes many sectors of the economy seriously underperform. And of course you'd have to deal with the growing dissatisfaction. Many governments are eager to get to that point where people realize they don't have to worry at all any more, since they hope there will be some sort of spending frenzy.

          • DasKarlBarx [he/him,comrade/them]
            ·
            4 years ago

            I mostly agree with what you say. It's not their top priority, but I do disagree that the ruling class wouldn't worry about it. We saw 700k+ excess deaths from March till now according to the CDC. That's with only a few places being overwhelmed at certian times.

            They'd have a decision to make to kneecap their already weak service economy to keep people alive or keep the economy chugging but have the fragile medical system get overwhelmed and see the death rate skyrocket to what it was earlier in the pandemic due to rationed care.

            Either choice would lead to major unrest, imo.

            • Pezevenk [he/him]
              ·
              4 years ago

              Well it's not exactly that they don't worry about it at all but it can be spun various ways.