******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. *****************************************************************
Which brings us back to the question of why we live in a socio-economic system that cannot afford to pause for a while.
The superficial answers are well known. Because the system is based on a constantly growing pile of debt, thus if debt payments stop, the whole system begins to unravel and everything falls apart. And because GDP growth is the highest goal, on which all macroeconomic and political decisions are based.
If the economy closes, private businesses run out of income, cannot pay their debts and dismiss their employees, who can no longer pay their rent, mortgages and other debts, all of which causes a cascade of defaults along the chain. Because everything is “optimized” so that the system pays workers only as much as to allow them to meet their daily needs but not to save, and because the businesses themselves have no reserves either, if the “pause” goes on for too long, where “too long” in many cases only means two to three months, the businesses close forever and the workers are left without the means to even buy food. What the latter will lead to remains to be seen.
As I said above, all of this is insanity, as there is no reasonable reason for it to happen if enough food is produced and the power grid, water and sewer systems work. There is currently no general physical problem that should lead to the complete disintegration of the system. If the system breaks down, it is entirely due to its own fundamental defects, thus the situation now should be a reason to reorganize the system, not to engage in futile attempts to save it, as it is obviously inherently broken.
full: https://www.criticatac.ro/lefteast/coronavirus-scientific-realities-vs-economic-fallacies/
_________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
