COVID Life and the Asset Economy
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- Published on Wednesday, 27 May 2020 07:02
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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2105 ... May 27, 2020
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COVID Life and the Asset Economy
Lisa Adkins and Martijn Konings
Following the 2007-08 financial crisis the creation of a less unequal and fairer world appeared to be a major prospect. As is by now all too familiar, after the financial crisis, instead of becoming more progressive, societies turned out to be more unequal, with inequalities and asset-based class divisions becoming more embedded and entrenched, and runaway wealth becoming the signature of the post-crisis world.
The world is now suffering an entirely different kind of emergency, the COVID-19 pandemic. In numerous countries, death rates are soaring, non-essential businesses and workplaces have been shut down, governments have put in place ‘stay-at-home’, ‘shelter-in-place’ and physical distancing mandates, millions have lost their jobs or have had their jobs furloughed, and hundreds of thousands of people, mostly those in white-collar professional occupations, are working from home.
There have been plenty of rapid-fire commentaries on the crisis, especially on how wide-ranging inequalities are actively shaping the furrows of COVID life. This has included commentary expressly contesting problematic claims... -- made by the UK’s Minister for the Cabinet Office among others -- that the COVID-19 virus is a great leveller that does not discriminate between rich and poor. Commentators -- social scientists among them -- have been quick to point out that rather than being equally exposed to the virus, workers who have been classified by governments as doing essential and key jobs, and are compelled to keep working -- healthcare, public transport, residential care, food retail, cleaning and delivery workers -- are disproportionately exposed to risk, especially when compared to many members of the white collar professional classes in non-essential jobs enjoying the luxury of salaried working from home.