The Black Death and Feudalism; Covid-19 and Capitalism

[georgephillip]

According to one of the foremost Marxist Theorist alive:

Capitalism Can’t Be Repaired, Coronavirus Shows Its Huge Weaknesses - CounterPunch.org

"In the 14th century, bubonic plague—the 'Black Death'—exposed Europe’s feudalism as vastly underfed, exhausted, dispirited, divided, and diseased.

"The infecting fleas carried by the rats could thus kill off a third of a very vulnerable continent.

"European feudalism never recovered its pre-bubonic strengths; its peak was behind it.

"Renaissance, reformation, and then the great English, French and American revolutions followed.

"The system collapsed amid transition to a new and different system, capitalism.

"Might the interactions now among capitalism, coronavirus, and a new worker-coop-based socialism prove similar to those among feudalism, the Black Death and capitalism so long ago?"

Private capitalists maximized profits by NOT producing masks, reagents, and swabs needed when the coronavirus hit; how's that for efficiency, considering how the wealth already lost from the shutdown greatly exceeds what it would have cost to prepare properly?

 

[MarathonMike]

CV19 has definitely exposed our weaknesses. Not in any order: Antiquated government computer systems collapsed. WHO is a puppet of China and Bill Gates. International travel restrictions didn't work, tens of thousands of Chinese still got in. We have WAY too many companies in China and many need to be pulled back to the US. The NorthEast was pummeled, the rest of the country not so much. We must understand why. There are more, but we had better address these before Corona 2.0 rolls around.

 

[OldLady]

vastly underfed, exhausted, dispirited, divided, and diseased.

You think that's us?

 

[Oddball]

 

[Indeependent]

View attachment 329073

I literally almost had to change my underwear!

 

[occupied]

CV19 has definitely exposed our weaknesses. Not in any order: Antiquated government computer systems collapsed. WHO is a puppet of China and Bill Gates. International travel restrictions didn't work, tens of thousands of Chinese still got in. We have WAY too many companies in China and many need to be pulled back to the US. The NorthEast was pummeled, the rest of the country not so much. We must understand why. There are more, but we had better address these before Corona 2.0 rolls around.

Instead of bitching about China you need to ask why this is kicking our asses so much worse than anyone else. The answer is that there is no money to be made in protecting America from pandemics.
The virus has attacked every sector of the healthcare industry that has been neglected because there is not a profit to be made. Reserve capacity, public health, geriatrics, vaccine research, institutional health care, disease tracking and testing, etc. Now what do we face? An already heavily subsidized industry having to be bailed out so they can go back to their usual price gouging. Clearly all the effort to mobilize our resources had to be made by the government because we were given botox, prozac, oxtcontin and pecker pills rather than a heath care system that works in an emergency.

 

[Indeependent]

CV19 has definitely exposed our weaknesses. Not in any order: Antiquated government computer systems collapsed. WHO is a puppet of China and Bill Gates. International travel restrictions didn't work, tens of thousands of Chinese still got in. We have WAY too many companies in China and many need to be pulled back to the US. The NorthEast was pummeled, the rest of the country not so much. We must understand why. There are more, but we had better address these before Corona 2.0 rolls around.

Instead of bitching about China you need to ask why this is kicking our asses so much worse than anyone else. The answer is that there is no money to be made in protecting America from pandemics.
The virus has attacked every sector of the healthcare industry that has been neglected because there is not a profit to be made. Reserve capacity, public health, geriatrics, vaccine research, institutional health care, disease tracking and testing, etc. Now what do we face? An already heavily subsidized industry having to be bailed out so they can go back to their usual price gouging. Clearly all the effort to mobilize our resources had to be made by the government because we were given botox, prozac, oxtcontin and pecker pills rather than a heath care system that works in an emergency.

Density and population and the hub of planet Earth.
More Liberals per square foot, including politicians, who could not forsee that their voters would drop dead.
The need to cater to the poor and needy of the world and to find any way to mock a MAGA President.
You wanted healthcare to be meeted out to the citizens of the world within our borders?
You got.

I don't know one doctor who is bitching about this the way you are.

It's better to bail out one's citizens than to constantly bail out the rest of the world.

I would go on but you wouldn't give a fuck anyway.

 

[Carl in Michigan]

Instead of bitching about China you need to ask why this is kicking our asses so much worse than anyone else

You really believe that?

 

[georgephillip]

The NorthEast was pummeled, the rest of the country not so much. We must understand why. There are more, but we had better address these before Corona 2.0 rolls around

Mnuchin and Trump resisted closing travel to Europe in the same way as China; that may explain why New York has paid the price it has. I agree there could be a far more deadly pandemic in our future without some major changes in national security.

 

[georgephillip]

vastly underfed, exhausted, dispirited, divided, and diseased.

You think that's us?

I think it's beyond dispute Americans were divided long before the coronavirus arrived. Many of us are exhausted and dispirited by six weeks of lockdown.
So far, truckers and others in the food distribution system have continued risking their lives keeping us fed; I suppose that could change if we don't reopen the economy properly?

 

[occupied]

Instead of bitching about China you need to ask why this is kicking our asses so much worse than anyone else

You really believe that?

Yeah. When that shit got here it was our problem and we have done a dreadful job dealing with it. Even were this an actual deliberate Chinese bio-attack like some dumbasses think it still shows our defenses suck balls. Trumpbots pointing at China are clearly trying to distract from this historic failure of America to deal effectively with a crisis. That failure may be laid at the feet everyone who put profits over people.

 

[georgephillip]

View attachment 329073

Too much MAGA?

 

[georgephillip]

The virus has attacked every sector of the healthcare industry that has been neglected because there is not a profit to be made

The US has about 4% of the world's population and 25% of global Covid-19 infections in spite of spending more per capita on health care than any other nation; something needs changing.

 

[MisterBeale]

According to one of the foremost Marxist Theorist alive:

Capitalism Can’t Be Repaired, Coronavirus Shows Its Huge Weaknesses - CounterPunch.org

"In the 14th century, bubonic plague—the 'Black Death'—exposed Europe’s feudalism as vastly underfed, exhausted, dispirited, divided, and diseased.

"The infecting fleas carried by the rats could thus kill off a third of a very vulnerable continent.

"European feudalism never recovered its pre-bubonic strengths; its peak was behind it.

"Renaissance, reformation, and then the great English, French and American revolutions followed.

"The system collapsed amid transition to a new and different system, capitalism.

"Might the interactions now among capitalism, coronavirus, and a new worker-coop-based socialism prove similar to those among feudalism, the Black Death and capitalism so long ago?"

Private capitalists maximized profits by NOT producing masks, reagents, and swabs needed when the coronavirus hit; how's that for efficiency, considering how the wealth already lost from the shutdown greatly exceeds what it would have cost to prepare properly?

George, while I have no doubt that authoritarian states can more quickly and efficiently locate, and target pathogenic health threats to the body politic, whether they be natural or man made. . .

. . . what is the price of freedom?

Sanctioned Countries Are Now Leading the World in the Fight Against Coronavirus

Countries under US sanctions, nearly a quarter of the world’s population, are faring better than the United States in fighting coronavirus.

www.mintpressnews.com

 

[Oddball]

View attachment 329073

Too much MAGA?

STFU, commie moonbat....Your Marxist fan fiction OP has next to zero to do with reality.

Private capitalists maximized profits by NOT producing masks, reagents, and swabs needed when the coronavirus hit...

Riiiiiight...Maximizing profits by selling as little product as possible....You'd be a shitty capitalist if you really believed that.

....considering how the wealth already lost from the shutdown greatly exceeds what it would have cost to prepare properly?

"Preparing properly" would have required getting quality and correct information from commies, who are compulsive liars as a matter of course.....Just like you.

 

[georgephillip]

George, while I have no doubt that authoritarian states can more quickly and efficiently locate, and target pathogenic health threats to the body politic, whether they be natural or man made. . .

. . . what is the price of freedom

For 2020?

Perhaps it's time to bring the troops home and focus on homeland defense?

 

[georgephillip]

Riiiiiight...Maximizing profits by selling as little product as possible....You'd be a shitty capitalist if you really believed that.

Maximizing supply in the absence of expected demand generates what level of profits, Puke; Ask your butt-bud if still confused.

 

[whitehall]

Maybe socialist democrats tipped their hand too soon. Could it be that the pandemic panic was about the left's socialist agenda?

 

[Oddball]

Riiiiiight...Maximizing profits by selling as little product as possible....You'd be a shitty capitalist if you really believed that.

Maximizing supply in the absence of expected demand generates what level of profits, Puke; Ask your butt-bud if still confused.

It maximizes profits per unit in a scarcity situation, but volume sales is where the real big money is.

You haven't the first idea of business models or how real capitalists think...Just STFU, stupid commie asshole.

 

[georgephillip]

"Preparing properly" would have required getting quality and correct information from commies, who are compulsive liars as a matter of course.....Just like you.

As opposed to compulsive capitalists?

Sanctioned Countries Are Now Leading the World in the Fight Against Coronavirus

"After weeks of dismissing it as a liberal “hoax” designed to unseat the president, brushing the virus off as no big deal and under control, the Trump administration is clearly floundering in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Despite weeks of warning where it could have taken precautionary steps, the United States currently has four times the confirmed cases and twice the deaths of any other country.

"At the same time, the countries it is currently placing under economic siege, totaling around a quarter of the world’s population, are faring far better and leading the global fight against the coronavirus."