Coronavirus Condemns Capitalism
There may be some big social changes come about as a result of coronavirus, which undermine a lot of the theories and ideals of the right.
It has shown that conservatives can change into 'big government spending' modes very quickly, and realise that a free market system is NOT strong enough to cope with such large troubles - which is a fundamental challenge to decades of neo-liberal thinking.
Perhaps even more radical is that has shown that sometimes huge social changes can happen very quickly. How long did it take for 100s of millions of people to adjust to a very different style of social interaction and way of doing business? 6 months? 3 months? In some places even less.
It shows that, if the majority of people think it necessary and beneficial, very large changes in society can happen - quickly, in a more or less cooperative way and largely without violence. Which means all the talk of changing away from capitalism meaning a lot of violence is not necessarily the case. It means the cliche of non-capitalist systems being 'against human nature' is simply not realistic.
A 3rd challenge is that it shows how weak the idea and practice is of running universities like businesses providing a service and students as customers. The level of face to face teaching has been little or none at all in many universities, for a long time now. Many have not been able to use dorm rooms they paid for or use various socialising places, like student cafes, etc. Meaning the 'customer' students did not get what they paid for, what the 'service provider' universities are 'contracted' to do .
So where are the refunds due to the customer students for this low quality service? That's part of how such a service in capitalism works, rights? If its faulty you get to take it back or get a refund. Consumer power! Problem there is that if millions of students successfully following through on that logic, then many universities will cost bust, and have to be closed...
Point is that university education should NOT be thought of as a consumption product run along free market lines. It should be a publicly organised process... for the public good.
All of these, and more, considerably undermine conservative, capitalist world views. Pity it took a deadly virus to show these weaknesses.
There may be some big social changes come about as a result of coronavirus, which undermine a lot of the theories and ideals of the right.
It has shown that conservatives can change into 'big government spending' modes very quickly, and realise that a free market system is NOT strong enough to cope with such large troubles - which is a fundamental challenge to decades of neo-liberal thinking.
Perhaps even more radical is that has shown that sometimes huge social changes can happen very quickly. How long did it take for 100s of millions of people to adjust to a very different style of social interaction and way of doing business? 6 months? 3 months? In some places even less.
It shows that, if the majority of people think it necessary and beneficial, very large changes in society can happen - quickly, in a more or less cooperative way and largely without violence. Which means all the talk of changing away from capitalism meaning a lot of violence is not necessarily the case. It means the cliche of non-capitalist systems being 'against human nature' is simply not realistic.
A 3rd challenge is that it shows how weak the idea and practice is of running universities like businesses providing a service and students as customers. The level of face to face teaching has been little or none at all in many universities, for a long time now. Many have not been able to use dorm rooms they paid for or use various socialising places, like student cafes, etc. Meaning the 'customer' students did not get what they paid for, what the 'service provider' universities are 'contracted' to do .
So where are the refunds due to the customer students for this low quality service? That's part of how such a service in capitalism works, rights? If its faulty you get to take it back or get a refund. Consumer power! Problem there is that if millions of students successfully following through on that logic, then many universities will cost bust, and have to be closed...
Point is that university education should NOT be thought of as a consumption product run along free market lines. It should be a publicly organised process... for the public good.
All of these, and more, considerably undermine conservative, capitalist world views. Pity it took a deadly virus to show these weaknesses.