The coronavirus pandemic has led to an unprecedented economic crisis resulting in a recession and widespread unemployment. This has led to many critics analysing how many of the problems may have resulted from the global prevailing social and political arrangement.
A leading economist has taken aim at the capitalist system for the economic crisis surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, citing its “unique incapacity” to respond effectively to the outbreak and protect public health.
In an interview with Salon on Sunday, Dr Richard D. Wolff of the University of Massachusetts Amherst slammed the United States government for failing to decisively step up to meet the reality of the crisis and instead of leaving the response measure to an ineffective private sector.
“And since public health is a basic demand, a need of human communities, this represents a profound disqualification of capitalism. And to spell it out just briefly: it is not profitable for a private, profit-driven competitive capitalist to produce masks by the millions, or gloves, or ventilators, or hospital beds, or all the rest of them”.
Dr Wolff clarified that this wasn’t due to a lack of ability for the state to respond, but rather a lack of political will and tends to only intervene for the benefit of certain industries, citing the military-industrial complex as an example.
“A government failure cannot be excused on grounds of the government not doing such things or conceiving of…
