Costa Rica continues to flatten out the COVID-19 curve for new confirmed cases. The death toll remains at 6. And the active cases curve is on a fast-track to zero, with recovered cases outpacing new ones by about 20 per day.
In fact, Costa Rica’s success in dealing with this crisis is starting to get noticed around the world. I keep seeing New Zealand touted as the world’s model in that regard and Jacinda Ardern certainly deserves loads of credit. But I think Costa Rica definitely deserves a very robust honorable mention.
My question is…what’s up with the U.S.A.? Why is America failing the COVID-19 test?
My home country is supposed to be known for its exceptionalism, but not this way…
The U.S. is leading the world alright…it has become the epicenter for this virus and has one of the highest fatality rates, as well as rate of deaths per million, in the world.
That’s not the kind of exceptionalism we Americans like to boast about!
So, why is America failing the COVID-19 test? Is there something specific to the American psyche that gets right to the heart of an answer?
Because, you know, we Americans love to place blame.
So, what’s (or who’s) to blame here?
In short…we are!
You see, Americans suffer from this compulsion towards a market mindset. That is, the mindset of the market being the solution to every problem. Granted, America has historically enjoyed the most prosperous market on the planet. We are (or have been) the envy of the world in that regard. Americans are therefore somewhat justified in their aggressive market-orientation. And we certainly are so oriented, compared to the rest of the developed world. Our reliance on market solutions for just about everything, from health care to war waging, is unique in this world, to put it mildly…
Good ole’ Bernie Sanders tried over and over to point that out to us. But his loud proclamations to that effect fell on death ears, for the most part.
We are living through historic times right now. You have to go back to 1918 for a time when a pandemic like COVID-19 has threatened the well-being of every American, as well as the American economy on the whole…
There are some trying to compare this crisis to the common flu that inflicts the nation annually. But this ain’t no flu. The flu has never come close to wreaking the kind of havoc COVID-19 has wrought upon us in only a couple months time…
However, compared to the suffering and hardship endured by Americans through the Great Depression and the ensuing World War, we ain’t seen nothing…yet…
And what exactly got us out of those messes?
Was it the market? Was the market the solution to the Great Depression, or World War II?
Of course not!
I’m talking about Roosevelt’s New Deal, the collective effort Americans at home engaged in to support our troops fighting fascism abroad, the GI Bill that helped those same troops and their families get a new start when the lucky ones returned home…
No, the market didn’t save us…we, the collective we, saved us!
Nevertheless and despite what history teaches us, Americans have become afflicted with this market oriented mindset. It’s a mindset that resides on the right and on the left (and in the center). It’s the one that believes we have to allow the market to work its magic and any attempts to interfere, via collective action, smack of socialism, or even communism.
Even now, Donald Trump says in order for us to move forward we’ve got to open up the market as fast as possible, health risks be damned. Of course, he is facing an election in a few months and bad markets don’t bode well for winning presidential elections. So, winning in November could possibly be where his true motivation lies.
Again, the market isn’t going to save us here. And if we move forward relying on it to do so, I believe America is doomed to fail. It’s doomed to fail not only the COVID-19 test, but quite possibly, doomed to fail and fall from it’s historic position as the greatest nation on earth…
But it doesn’t have to be that way. There’s still time to reverse course.
Mind you, reversing course doesn’t mean adopting socialism, or communism. But it does mean realizing that only collective action is going to get us out of this one, as well as that other (bigger) one looming on the horizon (in the form of rising CO2 levels).
I know what some of you are thinking…wait a minute, isn’t the solution a vaccine and won’t the development of such a vaccine be a product of a competitive market?
Well, with 3.5 million cases and 250,000 deaths, I can only hope that no one gets rich off of the development of a vaccine. After all, Jonas Salk never even filed for a patent for his polio vaccine. In fact, the very idea that someone, or some corporation, would get filthy rich off of a vaccine for this horrible disease gets to the very heart of my point…
If we can only save ourselves if there’s sufficient economic benefit in doing so, we’re f’ing doomed!
The nation-wide stay at home order, that we have collectively obeyed for the most part (well, at least until recently), is just one of the collective measures I’m getting at…
Those (like Trump himself) who’ve done well at exploiting the market, while it was still running on all cylinders, they’ll be just fine…
But that accounts for only a small percentage…Bernie’s 1%. The rest of us, we need help…collective help. Help of the kind that our government can and should be expected to provide…
If the market has been our magic carpet ride to greatness, well, that rug has been pulled right out from under us!
What’s our responsibility in this? Because we Americans, if we’re anything, we’re responsible, right?
Our responsibility is to turn from the madness of the market-as-the-only solution mindset.
Let’s face it, there is a clear and concise answer to the question, why is America failing the COVID-19 test?
We alone have the power to shift that paradigm and save ourselves…
Will we?
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