1 April 2020 — Anti-Capital

Yesterday, March 31, 2020, Donald Trump’s “task force” projected 100,000 to 240,000 deaths resulting from infection with the covid 19 virus in the United States.  Their “chief” who loves to characterize awkward questions as “nasty,” had no trouble accepting that bit of nastiness.

Let’s look a little bit at that number, at the high side of the number, at the 240,000 who are supposed to die because this government is more concerned with the bond market and the airlines than the health and safety of the general population.  Let’s look a bit at the numbers, because they, those agents, representatives, officials who shrug their shoulders, because they know we are the pool from which the 240,000 will be drawn.

So the US Center for Disease Control, which can’t get a decent test kit into the hands of medical professionals, reports a  1.75 percent death rate from the virus in the US.  That means our professionals on the task force figure that 13.7 million of us are going to be infected with this virus, about 4 percent of the population.  These are some scary numbers, right, but not half as scary as the speed  at which the numbers will turn into bodies.

Between March 27 and March 31, the World Health Organization numbers show that the number of infections in the US doubled.  Four days, twice the number infected.  If the rate of infection maintains that pace, we’ll reach that 13.7 million infected and 240,000 dead in 26 days, meaning of course, that some of us won’t be reaching anything in 26 days.

Further, numbers from the Chinese CDC show that 14 percent of those infected exhibit severe disease symptoms. 14 percent of those 13.7 million infected, 1.9 million, will most likely require urgent medical treatment and hospitalization in order to avoid becoming part of those 240,000 departed. The day after day 26, all those 1.9 million who have recovered will be stuck with an overwhelming medical debt and faced with an economy with no work to offer them.

Time to get our affairs in order?  Time enough to get our affairs in order? Sure thing, and the first affair we have to get in order is…….getting rid of this government, these institutions of incompetence led by  representatives of a ruling class where dishonesty is the national currency; getting rid of a government representing a class owning an economy where cutting medical care and nutritional assistance to us while providing tax-cuts to themselves is more than patriotic, it’s a religious sacrament.

Twenty six days to get affairs in order?  We start with organizing so that every laid-off worker receives unemployment benefits equal, not just to his or her wage, but at the level of the highest paid workers.  If we were working, all of us, contributing all of our time, we’d demand one big wage for all.  If we’re not working, we demand one big unemployment check for all.  Our welfare isn’t going to be jeopardized by an economy organized by the rich, for the rich, of the rich.

We start by demanding the suspension of all consumer debt– all residential mortgage debt; all auto loans; all student loans; all medically-incurred debt.

We start by actually building the institutions of public health, basing them in communities, with medical professionals living in those communities, with prevention being the organizing principle of treatment.

We start by demanding the opening and inspection of FEMA warehouses by committees of doctors, nurses, hospital workers to inventory the contents and, in conjunction with other committees, including dockworkers, railroad and trucking employees work out distribution regimes based on need, not political favor.

We start by absorbing unemployed workers in to those committees of doctors, nurses, hospital workers, dockworkers, railroad and trucking employees and others to drastically reduce the duration of the working-week with no reduction in pay levels.

We start by demanding no evictions, no foreclosures.

Twenty-six days is enough time to begin; to make sure that another 13.7 million, another 240,000 never face another 26 days.