We rethink the week with Stephen Pimpare, Professor at the University of New Hampshire and a nationally recognized expert on poverty, homelessness, and U.S. social policy; David Schultz, professor of political science at Hamline University; and Dean Spiliotis, Civic Scholar and Presidential Scholar at Southern New Hampshire University.
WHAT WILL IT TAKE FOR US TO WISE UP TO WHAT’S GOING ON?
We discuss the ramifications of Sen. Rand Paul’s having tested positive for COVID-19. Paul is a politician who told the public that coronavirus is not such a big deal, and now he’s just another poster child for why we should all be extremely careful lest we, too, become one more victim. Even if Sen. Paul ultimately recovers – and he is fortunate enough to dodge this bullet – nevertheless his announcement has no doubt struck fear into the hearts of many elderly senators, some of whom ate lunch with Sen. Paul in the Senate cafeteria or who worked out in the Senate gym after Paul did. One can hope that the American public will likewise have their consciousness raised by Paul’s news, and will realize that being selfish – thinking only of one’s own interests, without concern for how our actions might harm other people – is not consistent with the kind of neighborly spirit that we Americans believe in.
What about public policy solutions? Should we “do it all” – throw a huge amount of money ($2 trillion) at the coronavirus? There’s a risk that that could lead to a lot of the money being wasted (it might be diverted to corruption and/or line the pockets of greedy price-gougers).
WILL THIS CRISIS LEAD TO BIG STRUCTURAL CHANGES THAT WILL MAKE SURE OUR POLITICAL & ECONOMIC SYSTEMS SERVE ALL OF THE PEOPLE AND NOT JUST THE WEALTHY & CORPORATIONS?
After the crisis is over, will we just go back to business-as-usual? Or will the crisis be the opportunity that our society needs in order to make fundamental changes? Will the post-COVID-19 world be one where regular working families will be able to feel some stability in their lives, without the constant fear that they may not be able to feed their families and pay the rent when they’re confronted by life’s ups and downs? Will our leaders address the psychological well-being of the American public, as well as the real-world suffering that life can bring them when they’re living paycheck to paycheck?
We in the U.S. have a very good private health care delivery system, but a terrible public health delivery system. E.g., if you’re very rich and you need a nose job, you have one of the best health care delivery systems in the world. But if our society faces a pandemic like COVID-19 where more than half of all Americans are likely to get sick, our public health system is woefully unprepared to keep us healthy.
This crisis gives us an opportunity to take a step back, to reflect on where we have come from and where we are headed. We can look in the mirror and realize that we are not who we’ve been telling ourselves we are. We don’t have the world’s greatest economy or the best of all possible health care systems.
On the other side of the coin, we might not truly be limited by the pessimistic expectations that we set for ourselves. The prospect of systemic change – like Medicare For All – is not really impossible like we’ve been telling ourselves. We still have the potential to become a country where all of us share more equally in the fruits of our collective labor, where we care about our families and our fellow human beings and not solely about advancing our own material well-being.
