ABSTRACT

This essay explores how the coronavirus pandemic has exposed the glaring weaknesses of the American neoliberal order. In early 2021, the U.S., with 4% of the world’s population, suffered 20% of the world’s covid-19 cases. The paper examines the factors that made the U.S. uniquely vulnerable to the pandemic: hyper-individualism, high levels of religiosity, ignorance of science, generalized distrust of the government, and the fetishization of the market. These forces produced a society with high levels of income inequality, a tattered social safety net, lack of universal health coverage, a large prison population, and vast numbers of the homeless. The health care crisis gave rise to an economic crisis. Low income communities and people of color are particularly vulnerable. The structural deficiencies of American neoliberalism are exacerbated by the corruption, indifference, and incompetence of the Trump administration, which failed to take the pandemic seriously. Lack of testing, pastors defying social distancing guidelines, forcing low wage workers back to work and the touting of fraudulent cures such as hydroxychloroquine illustrate what happens when a conservative society unused to inconvenience encounters an unseen foe that replicates itself with devastating efficiency.

摘要

本文探讨冠状病毒大流行如何揭露了美国新自由主义秩序的明显弱点。在2021年初，美国人口占世界人口的4％，却遭受了20例covid-19病例的折磨。本文研究了使美国在大流行中特别脆弱的因素：过度个人主义，高水平的宗教信仰，对科学的无知，对政府的普遍不信任以及对市场的迷信。这些力量造就了一个收入不平等程度高，社会安全网破烂，缺乏全民健康覆盖，监狱人口众多和无家可归的人的社会。医疗危机引发了经济危机。低收入社区和有色人种特别脆弱。特朗普政府的腐败，冷漠和无能加剧了美国新自由主义的结构性缺陷，而这并未引起人们的严重关注。缺乏测试，牧师无视社会疏离指导方针，迫使低薪工人重返工作岗位以及吹捧诸如羟氯喹之类的欺诈疗法，这说明了当一个不方便使用的保守社会遇到看不见的敌人并以毁灭性的效率自我复制时会发生什么。