Another system could cope with disasters better than capitalism.
The fact that more than 20 million people have lost their job in the USA is because of a lack of customers, of people not going to cafes, shops, museums, etc. Thats obvious. But what is less obvious is why a lack of customers means people must be sacked to furloughed without pay. It’s not clearly the cases that this needs to happen. Or rather, it is - in a capitalist system. Because its the lack of profit that means those staff are laid off and the absolute power of the owners to be able to do that, with no regards to what the actual staff want.
In a BESS (better economic and social system) there would be no king like owners who have that power to dismiss 100s of people. You would be an equal part of your staff collective or workers and residents council and everyone affected would have a say. It could well be that, say, 20% of the staff would need reduce their hours or stop working during a crisis. But that would be agreed on by everyone - you would not simply be tossed aside by a rich boss, like a wet rag. That is already a hugely different and better situation.
Secondly, in a BESS the aim of companies would not be to make profit but to help the community via producing things and services. Therefore they would have, as part of that, plans in place to cope with emergencies. Including long periods of inactivity and lack of production. There would be a kind of ‘contingency fund’ in place in all workplaces and communities to help folk cope with floods, earthquakes, and yes, viruses (including medical supplies). Therefore, when the disaster hit, that resource would be drawn upon to help the people get through it. Meanwhile, the staff would do what they can to be helpful and productive in other ways. Probably the amount of ‘money’ or credit they get would not be reduced in that time at all, if it was just a few months.
But in capitalism, when a disaster like this hits we have 100s of millions of people quickly thrown into poverty, just like that. Then the companies and corporations rely on the government (which they normally say is so much trouble to them) to toss people $1000 or some other clearly inadequate amount, months later. Meanwhile you still have to pay rent of course - no way that is going to stop while you are unemployed. Rich landlords gotta have their money, they have swimming pools to heat!
The virus is causing the economic turmoil, but its capitalism which makes the trouble so bad and the reaction so weak. We should take this chance to end it and make a BESS, so we can have that better life which is possible.