The “war” and pandemic economies
08
Apr
The only economic model we have of a situation in which the productive forces
of society are disorganized by the impossibility of going to work or by the effort concentrated in another activity is the “war” economy, however there is a difference because it is not war between peoples , the enemy is now a virus that has the power to do a war-like damage.
John Kenneth Galbraith wrote after the September 11 attacks, believing in a possible war, that “in a war economy, the public obligation is to do what is necessary: to support the military effort, to protect and defend the national territory, and especially to maintain the physical well-being, solidarity and morale of the population ”.
Of course, military effort can be exchanged here for medical effort, but it is already happening because not all productive forces are disorganized, the reorganization of oeconomicus, the initial meaning in ancient Greece that gave rise to the word economy, that is, the domestic economy. However, the social economy must reorganize, still in a period of pandemic, paralyzed sectors such as domestic tourism, the light and heavy mechanics industry and the consumer goods industry can be rethought around the “war effort”, in several countries to the auto industry has been called to make and restore hospital equipment, and hotels are used to house some homeless people, in short it is possible to rethink some things.
Volunteers working in needy communities are also an important effort, clothing stores can make clothing and masks to help the population, probably this should continue after the pandemic, as shown by eastern countries, the use of masks is common in Japan and some eastern countries. Family spaces should also be rethought, personally I have always built an office outside or isolated in the home environment, an American report went viral that the reporter’s wife enters his current office to remove the children.
We also did not make monthly purchases, of course, storage has a perverse side of being able to increase or even disappear some products, as happened in Brazil with milk, and the gas cylinder apparently has some speculation at stake, but we must reorganize the economy of the “Neighborhood” where people can travel less and make monthly purchases.
The main thing is to overcome an “economocentric” model and think of a biocentric one, I prefer the anthropocentric one because pets and nature must also be thought of in the social relationship.
There is a “paschal” side not only for the period we live in, but for the number of deaths and the struggle to reduce this number, in those who have sensitivity there is a feeling of death, but the struggle for life, the essential thing is the bread of each day and the resurrection to come gives this paschal environment.
