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Time to Think Big
This should be a start-from-scratch moment. Covid-19 has made clear what Nation readers already know: A tiny elite in the US siphons off the wealth while most people struggle from paycheck to paycheck. In the first few weeks of the US outbreak, America’s billionaires increased their combined net worth by $434 billion—even as nearly 40 million workers have lost their jobs and some 100,000 people here have died from the coronavirus. The dead are disproportionately black, Latinx, and Native. This isn’t surprising; this is how tragedies go in America. With this crisis, working people can see the fragility and cruelty inherent in our systems of health care, housing, and employment. But it is up to the left to translate this collective outrage into the building blocks of a more just society. Now is the time to think big. —Christopher Shay
Public health experts hope that the vast scale of the crisis will prompt meaningful political action to counter health inequities, which have been persistent in America for well over a century.
Now everyone knows teachers, child care providers, and health aides are essential workers. Will that finally get them the pay and protections they deserve?