WTF

The Salvage Collective:

"The anti-social refuseniks of disaster nationalism ( Boris Johnson, Trump, Bolsinaro et al...) reflect, rather, the accumulated political culture of a specific ruling class praxis and statecraft. For COVID-19 is a disease that is particularly lethal to the elderly and the immuno-compromised. And that the weak must die, and that anything else is a form of moral hazard, has been the implicit credo of the ‘free market’ social Darwinism on which reaction has feasted for decades."

But not all old people are a burden, some have plenty of consumption power left. It is those who cost more than they contribute who must go; those living on social security, those with medical costs they can't cover, those dependent on state insurance and other provision. They have to die for the economy to successfully reset.

Of course it is politically tricky, even for clowns, to openly advocate for Capital over human life. Trump had to walk back his "Business By Easter" claim to keep his approval rating soaring. Like all American Blunders (Vietnam, Iraq, Katrina, no ventilators etc.) this mishandling will be forgotten the second the web page gets changed. People are damaged, capitalist subjects, "interpellated as self-maximizers for so long they cannot be counted on to "do the right thing' ". Nor can the capitalist State be trusted to do the right thing. But as with the climate crisis, we are backed into choices between least worst options.

Reading the economic press is always an exercise in frustration, but it is amazing to hear the qualifying adjectives of extreme uncertainty. Depending on the analyst we are told trillions of debt hangover from the last crisis, now compounded, is either "grim" or "catastrophic" or "nothing to worry about". Thousands of over-leveraged "zombie" sectors- US fracking is the best example- might have a cascading effect...or might be absorbed???

Who is making caskets or body bags? Will we see the National Guard picking vegetables in California when the undocumented are too sick or deported? More questions than answers right now.