It's because the pandemic has become an extremely inconvenient roadblock on the highway to the eventual privatisation of the remaining public services.

  • States refusing to use existing Public Health vaccination plans, created for just this eventuality, in favour of vaccinations at Walgreens or whatever.

  • Cuomo avoiding using the NY Public Health vaccination plan in favor of one created by him and his aides. He's had enough of experts apparently, and doesn't mind saying it. He put a donor in charge of vaccine rollout.

  • The Conservative govt in the UK awarding 9 figure, repeat nine figure, PPE contracts to Conservative Donor-owned companies that only specialise in party supplies or something.

Anything to avoid reversing the trend of cutbacks to all public services.

Anything to maintain the march to privatisation.

Anything to avoid funding public services (that aren't cops), to avoid hiring people, and thefore empowering the unions.

Even in the middle of a global pandemic they will not reverse course and fund public services.

At the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives.

Government buildings should be marched on.

  • Prinz1989 [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    I think it's much easier and much less conspirational. The push for privatization wasn't even that strong in Europe these last years (in parts because almost everythin already is privat). The west had a shitty response to covid because it is utterly incapeable of action. Just look at the US or any given country in Europe. The late 90s early 2000 were the high point of neoliberalism the time of Clinton, Blair, Schröder. Now noone does big reforms in any direction. Trump has next to no legaslative legacy, the far right governments in eastern Europe have lost public support because save for some right idpol (like Roma-, Muslim-, Queerphobic policies) and attacking democratic institutions they also did next to nothing. It's the same with climate change, the sience is even more clear then with the virus but they just can't act. Profit rates are falling and they dictate the margin of action in a capitalist society. The west has entered the Breshnev era, utter stagnation awaiting multiple organ failure while the propaganda still sounds the same old platitudes.

    • late90smullbowl [they/them]
      ·
      4 years ago

      The west had a shitty response to covid because it is utterly incapeable of action.

      See I would say the state is utterly incapable of action because the apparatus has been hollowed out so entirely by neoliberalism, austerity and privatisation that it doesn't actually have the ability to act in an emergency. It's a facade, apart from the policing function.

      Everything has been rationalised, streamlined and optimised, like a business, because everything is run by fucking MBAs. So there is no stock kept in reserve, no planning for eventualities. Except for the military.

      The succdem elements, like schools, transport, prisons, hospitals, infrastructure still exist notionally. The resources are still there to restore them to their former glory if we immediately just went to a wartime footing. Resources that are currently going to the capitalists and then to tax havens. Because there is a war on. A war on two fronts - climate and viral.