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

本文探讨了冠状病毒大流行如何暴露了美国新自由主义秩序的明显弱点。2021 年初，拥有全球 4% 人口的美国遭受了全球 20% 的 covid-19 病例。该论文研究了使美国特别容易受到大流行影响的因素：过度个人主义、高度宗教信仰、对科学的无知、对政府的普遍不信任以及对市场的迷恋。这些力量造就了一个收入高度不平等、社会安全网破败、缺乏全民健康覆盖、监狱人口众多和大量无家可归者的社会。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，特朗普政府未能认真对待这一流行病。缺乏测试、牧师无视社会疏远准则、迫使低工资工人重返工作岗位以及吹捧羟氯喹等欺诈性治疗方法都说明了当一个习惯于不便的保守社会遇到一个看不见的敌人以毁灭性的效率复制自己时会发生什么。