Opinion: Coronavirus Highlights Inhumanity and Inefficiency of For-Profit Economy
Opinion: Coronavirus Highlights Inhumanity and Inefficiency of For-Profit Economy
https://www.politicususa.com/2020/03/21/opinion-coronavirus-highlights-inhumanity-and-inefficiency-of-for-profit-economy.html
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The economic culture in the United States still largely holds to the belief that private industry, guided by the pursuit of private interests and the profit motive, leads to the most efficient and effective economy. Conservatives, of course, cling to this belief on steroids, as is evident in their hallmark platform calling for small government, even no government, railing against bloated government operations and programs such as Social Security, Medicare, national parks, and more. As I’ve written much about lately (here andhere, for example), Trump is operationalizing this ideology in hyper-drive, rampantly destroying the public sphere and railing against the public school system as “failing government-run schools,” as he eyes the dismantling of that system as well.
It is now practically a truism in our culture, even outside of conservative circles, that the private sector somehow knows how to get things done expeditiously and efficiently, while our government agencies are dilatory, ineffective, and wasteful of taxpayer dollars.
The non-partisan coronavirus argues strongly against this truism, in fact absolutely debunking it, highlighting its wrongheadedness and lunacy.
Our current economy, encouraging behaviors designed above all else to maximize profits, valorizes, for example, the elimination of excess capacity because of its inefficiency from a business standpoint. The emphasis on “lean production” similarly valorizes practices such as “just-in-time” inventory management, which discourages the stockpiling of “excess” production materials, again of because of its inefficiency from the business standpoint.
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