The\ncurrent fight of the human race against the deadly coronavirus shows the\nobvious inability of a capitalist, free-market system to handle it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nations\nwith more centralised economy and command-control mechanisms already in place\nare better equipped with tools to respond and act. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many\nbusinesses in all industries close to our daily life are at standstill, and\nsadly may never recover from this plight or it might take a long time if things\nget back to normal. It is obvious that prolonging capitalism and its\nfunctionalities, and not rapidly changing the course to socialism would lead to\ngreat human losses and disasters. The nation will suffer at all levels of its\nstructure enormously if the crisis extends for months. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What\nthen to do? How to re-act?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is\nworth looking at the history of societies and nations which underwent economic\nand political cataclysms and see what was done there and at what cost, and what\nperhaps could have been done differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Take\nSoviet Union after the October revolution for example. A switch to socialism\nwas very painful, it was not done smartly and systematically but as a result of\na bloody and brutal overthrow of the previous system, but there were certain\nmoments when a clever action of the leadership helped to mitigate the tragedy.\nFor example, switching to the so called \u201cMilitary Communism\u201d was essential\nduring that plight. One thing should be clear is that the leaders should be\nsmart enough and steer the nation quickly towards socialist realities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead\nof trying to pay a significant salary replacement to workers who are now\neffectively unemployed (the bureaucracy of this process will not be sustainable\nin these speedy dire straights of the pandemic), we need to face the reality\nand give people the absolute basics. People should be given some comfort of\nhope in material sense – guaranteed food, shelter, moral and medical support.\nIf someone rents a place to live and has no cash to pay the rent now, the\ngovernment should, perhaps in a very crude and direct way, issue a decree that\nthe owners shall NOT demand rent from people who lost their job. Small elements\nof \u201ctemporary expropriation\u201d (I am not calling to the disownership of the property!)\nare needed. The fate of the nation is at stake. And the nation is its people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Clearly, a government that was brought up on the principles of free economy, conservatism and capitalist values, would have enormous problems to simply turn the switch from capitalism to socialism. But what can we do? We have to live with the government that was elected by the people. And it happens to be conservative. So be it. Thus, we can only hope in some remains of common sense in this government and we can only try to impact on their policies to be more decisive. They should realise that the country urgently needs to switch to some forms of socialism and more direct rule. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The current fight of the human race against the deadly coronavirus shows the obvious inability of a capitalist, free-market system to handle it. Nations with more centralised economy and command-control mechanisms already in place are better equipped with tools to … Continue reading