We are all astronauts on spaceship earth.
~R. Buckminster Fuller.
I’m not a macro or microeconomics professional. But I do share air, space, and food sources with them, and with you. And that makes us connected. All of us.
When the poorest among us can’t pay for the COVID-19 test and treatment, then the rest of us are exposed. It’s that simple.
Most uninsured people in America are in low-income families with at least one worker in the family. When that worker goes to work sick, because they can’t afford to not work, nor pay for treatment, they expose hundreds or thousands more, depending on what statistical report you read.
According to Kaiser Family Foundation, KFF.org, “The number of uninsured non-elderly Americans decreased from over 46.5 million in 2010, (the year the ACA was enacted) to just below 27 million in 2016. Since 2016…the number of people who lack health insurance coverage has grown by 1.2 million.”
It’s grown because some states (I’m looking at you, Texas) didn’t expand Medicaid, which means poor people who can’t get Medicaid also make “too much” to qualify for the subsidies provided by the ACA. No health insurance for them.
It also increased due to changes the present government made to try to abolish ACA. And when the poorest among us can’t afford the COVID-19 test or treatment, the rest of us are exposed.
Plus, the ones not covered by insurance are the ones with food handling jobs, cleaning jobs, ticket taking jobs, and other employment that brings them into contact with the public. They are also the ones most hurt financially when festivals and events cancel, and movie theaters and other gathering places close down. Without their hourly wages job, they have no money coming in to cover basic needs, much less medical treatment.
One of my closest friends works hourly to set up and take down stages and exhibits for large conferences and entertainment venues. Where will money come from to pay bills? Where else can his skills be used during this pandemic? Hourly wages workers have no unemployment benefits to fall back on.
The canceling of the popular South By South West music, gaming, and art festival in Austin, Texas represents a 335.9 million dollar loss to the city and state.
The more the virus is spread, because of people who can’t pay for treatment or don’t have access to tests, the more stringent the methods of containment become, and the more the overall economy suffers as a result. The so-called free market and gig economy doesn’t provide financial, much less medical, protection for most workers.
America doesn’t rely as much on tourism as European, some South and Central American, and Asian countries. But we are still taking a hit. The canceling of South By South West music, gaming and film festival dealt a 335.9 million dollar loss to Austin, Texas. And who is hurt the most?
Festival workers, builders of sets and stages, local musicians and sound people, food workers, security people, cleaning crews, and thousands more who work gig and event jobs are left in the lurch. Again, they usually don’t have medical insurance, nor unemployment benefits. They can certainly self-isolate, but can they afford to stockpile food?
As bad as the American administration not being prepared medically is the cavalier attitude toward other countries before the pandemic. Isolationism through tariffs and bans already dealt farmers and manufacturers in America lethal financial blows. Quite literally, as suicide rates among American farmers have risen. Slowing the money flowing back and forth between countries harms all of us, in one way or another. Global economy doesn’t just keep us safe by preventing world war. It should make us loath to do anything to disrupt life on the planet we all share.
Is it really such a stretch to think that U.S. tariffs against China disinclined them to let us know sooner about the virus? Yes, I know, China leaders have egos. But if our guy thinks so highly of their guy, would their guy have given us a heads up if we hadn’t been imposing tariffs so rabidly?
This is speculation, I know. However, it isn’t speculation that a pandemic can and does show us that we are, indeed, connected. Connected medically, financially, and in every way imaginable.
It took a virus to make it clear that all humanity is as vulnerable as its weakest member.
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Previously Published on Medium