Capitalism Has No Clothes: The Unexpected Shock of the Covid-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) or COVID-19 has undeniably changed the world forever. Capitalism in the United States and Europe can no longer feel immune from the effects of epidemics that were at one point in time the concern of minor countries, such as the recent (2014-2016) Ebola epidemic in Western Africa. This article examines how COVID-19 not only showed that Capitalism has no clothes in its inability to respond effectively to this momentous event, but shows the burgeoning of the impact on its slow-motion decline. This is evident from the still-unresolved healthcare crisis in the United States, which allows runaway contagion, sickness, and death due to a careless governmental attitude that prioritizes capital over human lives;the economic impact, which sidelines millions of workers into unemployment, leaving them without a way to sustain themselves due to a miserly and short-sighted governmental response;and the political and social cost that is yet to be determined. Copyright © 2020 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden.