America’s battle with the coronavirus looks grim thanks to dire working conditions and Donald Trump’s incompetence
- The hypercapitalist US system can force millions to carry on with their jobs even if they are sick. Meanwhile, the fractious and irresponsible US president is more concerned with his election chances than curbing the virus
New York has finally cottoned on to the threat posed by the coronavirus. On Friday my wife and I went to stock up on tinned food and enough hand sanitiser to make Howard Hughes call an intervention, and business was proceeding as normal.
To outsiders, such anxiety may seem odd. After all, with its wealth, substantial medical resources and technologically advanced health care, America looks better placed to weather the oncoming storm than most other nations.
But the country’s hypercapitalist mindset, and the exploitation and financial consolidation practised by the rich at the expense of the middle and working classes over the past few decades (and in some cases centuries), has left it dangerously vulnerable to such an epidemic.
The first issue is that there is no federal – i.e. countrywide – law requiring paid sick leave for employees. So in many places if you can’t work, you don’t get paid.
This isn’t universal: 10 of the 50 states, the country’s capital and some cities have mandated some kind of paid sick leave, but the avaricious nature of American politics has left them badly compromised.
In New York City, one of the more progressive areas of the US, for example, many employees receive a maximum of 40 hours of paid sick leave per year – that’s just five eight-hour shifts. And those have to be earned, with one hour of leave for every 30 hours worked. New York state as a whole has no such law.
Companies may offer more generous compensation packages, of course, but these don’t generally apply to lower-paid workers; workers like, say, the guy who serves your food, or the woman who’s handling your change at the store counter, or the person who delivers your pizza. Workers who now have an incentive to clock on with a sore throat and fuzzy head, and hope that what they have is just a cold.
Even if they might be inclined to stay at home and take the financial hit, the US also has “at-will” employment, which can allow businesses to fire employees for almost any reason with immediate effect.
So the fear of job instability is another reason for people to go into work even if they don’t feel well.
But hey, the US has the best-paid doctors in the world, right? They ought to help.
Ah, but health care in the US costs. Big time. According to debt help organisation Debt.org, without health insurance an initial visit to a doctor costs, on average, between US$68 and US$234, depending on the complexity of the case.
Even with health insurance – which may or may not be subsidised by an employer – visits to a doctor often require a “co-payment” that can cost as little as US$5 but sometimes US$45 or more, depending on the insurance.
That figure goes up if hospitalisation is necessary; in 2017 the average hospital stay co-payment cost US$336, according to CNBC. And then there are percentage payments of the cost of services or medicines, which can run into thousands of dollars.
All of these things are great for companies, of course; a workforce with unstable employment and little to no paid sick leave will keep contributing to employers’ profits through sickness, pain or exhaustion. So long as you don’t care about the dignity and health of human beings, it’s an absolute win.
But even then, it’s obviously counterproductive during an epidemic.
It gets worse: the US has no universal childcare, and yet in two-thirds of families, both parents work. That’s great for the economy. It’s rather less great for elderly family members, an at-risk population for Covid-19, called on to look after the children.
All of this in a rapidly ageing country: in 1950, just 8 per cent of the US population was aged 65 or older. In 2018 it was double that. And there’s no reason to believe that the trend has reversed in the past two years.
One would hope that US President Donald Trump would work swiftly and effectively to shut down areas where the virus takes hold.
China’s opaque, authoritarian system did initially lead to the Wuhan authorities trying to cover up the outbreak – contributing to the subsequent epidemic – but it also allowed the country to place draconian lockdowns on the worst-affected areas and shut down businesses across the country.
Could Trump use the wide range of emergency measures open to him to follow suit? That’s a question for constitutional lawyers, but likely not one he’ll ask any time soon.
So following China’s lead is less than appealing for him.
And that’s with business going on more or less as normal. What happens if population centres are locked down and movement is restricted? What happens if businesses are shut down en masse?
Of course, the effects of a pandemic on the economy wouldn’t be great either, but as we have seen over the past four years, Trump rejects facts that do not align with his world view, has trouble processing complex data and increasingly acts like an elderly man whose brains are dribbling out of his ears.
He also has a total inability to plan ahead, which is probably why he fired the US’ national pandemic prevention team in 2018.
Official photos of Pence and his team “praying against the coronavirus” are unlikely to assuage the fears of those who seek earthly intervention in the pandemic rather than a belated deus ex machina.
Neither are claims by Trump that the disease “will one day disappear like a miracle”.
But a miracle might be what America needs, given the systemic issues at the bottom of society and the buffoon at the top.
Just please sanitise your hands before joining the prayer circle.
James Wilkinson is senior digital production editor for the Post’s US bureau
Purchase the China AI Report 2020 brought to you by SCMP Research and enjoy a 20% discount (original price US$400). This 60-page all new intelligence report gives you first-hand insights and analysis into the latest industry developments and intelligence about China AI. Get exclusive access to our webinars for continuous learning, and interact with China AI executives in live Q&A. Offer valid until 31 March 2020.