Social Distancing is not a Vacation: The Corona Virus

            It is unusual for me to write on this blog about something I am capable of having a professional opinion on.  To establish myself (or I will tell you my credentials and you can choose to believe me or not, I will remain mostly anonymous on this blog), I three master’s degrees.  The first is in Applied American Politics and Policy, focusing on election politics, mostly from the 20^th century.  The second is in Urban and Regional Planning, having to do with lesser developed nations, community outreach, and self-driving cars (of all things).  Lastly, I have a degree in International Affairs, dealing with international relations and development in lesser countries.  Degrees 2 and 3 were highly related.

            I am going to talk about the current global pandemic.  I will be doing so in a manner highly critical of existing US politics and response.  I will not be going into great technical detail, please follow medical professionals for advice on that.  Instead, I will be pointing to how the US political system is failing to react to the inputs of this disaster.  If I were being paid to do this, I assure you this would have citations and diagrams.  Instead, it will just have speculation and complaints.

Social Distancing is not a Vacation

            Since the wide spread catastrophe called the Corona Virus, AKA COVID-19, the patchwork response has been social isolation.  A self-quarantine procedure which involves people working from home, avoiding public spaces (including government buildings like schools and libraries being shut), the closing of businesses (especially those in the food services industries), and the truncating of travel.

            This has been incredibly disruptive.  I typically work from home, my job being research and I still find the ambient stress and uncertainty of the situation to be killing productive drive.  I can only imagine how people used to compartmentalizing their lives into work and home are dealing with suddenly having to do office work while their pets and children surround them.  How difficult it will be to just sit down and work when you are so close to your bed, your TV, or your fridge.

            That all being said, this is not a vacation.  No matter how unproductive this time is, it is not downtime spent relaxing, exploring, or adventuring.  No one is (or at least no one should be) enjoying their time “off from work”.  The reason I bring this up is simple: I think business owners are going to try and screw their employees over by docking sick pay, vacation time, flex time, and any number of other mechanisms that are supposed to be for employees to take a break.

            You can picture this too, “You just had two weeks at home.”  There is going to be a mass turning of the screws on the working class.  To say nothing of all the firings, “In this economy we don’t need you.” While ignoring how a person’s health insurance is tied to their job and how a firing will leave them in the cold just as a global pandemic is about to hit the gas (watch, as the President and other GOP led governments around the country decide that the risk of millions of people dying is not as bad as the loss of business revenue, this is going to take off).

            I bring this all up to lead into this next point, this should have been a time for real substantive change.  A political window thru which massive policy could have and should have been pushed for by numerous political entities.  “Are there going to be massive layoffs?  Guess a Universal Basic Income will be a good welfare system to keep people fed and off the street till businesses wheels are turning again.  Better start expanding Medicare so that people can keep going to the doctor without having to worry about dying poor, every person who doesn’t get themselves checked during a pandemic is a potential plague carrier on the move.”

            Beyond that jobs that are derided and demeaned as “low skilled” are now being seen for what they truly are, FOUNDATIONAL.  People need their paperwork filed, groceries stocked, and a clean world.  These things are not grunt work to be paid a wage that does not provide a prosperous living.  “The classist veneer we have cultivated that allows us to bilk the middle class without them noticing is about to wash away as they see how important all the people we have taught them to look down on really are?  I guess we should raise the minimum wage and worker protections to keep the revolts from happening.”

I am betting rich people are breathing a sigh of relief there is not a grocer or truckers union in place that could demand permanent increases to pay.  Sure striking right now would be unthinkable, the President would fire them all and call in the army to do the job of shipping things nationally (see Ronald Reagan's treatment of air traffic controllers to see how that would work, the union busting bastard), but the fact of the matter is, if there were a national unified group to advocate to the press and to Congress their needs and political demands… things would change.  Pay would go up.  Vacation time would go up.

This event also perfectly illustrates how critical the internet is.  It is a utility and should be treated as such.  All utilities should be seen as public trusts and not for profit enterprises.  We can see the failings of the gig economy, as Airbnb has had such a wash of cancellations we are able to see how much potential housing in major cities has been swallowed up as profitable rental property.  The massive and unsustainable distortions in the housing market are coming home to roost, as people who live paycheck to paycheck may not make rent next month.

The virus is not the chain reaction currently destroying the US economy.  It is a fire that is hitting the numerous bags of gunpowder and kindling the economy is built on.  This is late stage capitalism, one that focuses on constant growth of numbers on paper but has no ability to anticipate or plan for catastrophe.  One that sees no value in people beyond their use as labor.  A system that can be devastated by a sufficiently wet cough.

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