The Virus and the Cost of Living

We have worked hard to compare this economic crisis with previous ones, not enough of this epidemic to its ancestors.

However, if we search in this regard, we soon discover something that should make the road ahead clear.

In previous epidemics, in millenniums, human life, except for powerful ones, was not much counted; it was short, with no real value, no economic or psychological ideas. Since there was no therapeutic way to protect life, there remained simply “resignation”. Moreover, in most civilizations, interest in life was determined by various forms of religion.

When we started to have tools and protect ourselves, vaccines were invented, we in most situations continued to live as before, interrupted only by epidemics. Today, we have come into a radical new situation - life in some of the richest countries is of infinite value. Not just because we live much longer. Not only because each one's production capacity is more important than ever; but above all, because, ideologically, ethically, we no longer accept the value of life on economic criteria.

In many other lands, even among the richest, care is still being rationed in a way that is meant or expressed. And there are many countries, not necessarily the same, who refuse to put people's health before functioning the economy. This is especially the case in Brazil. A little less clear in the United States, where the president is obsessed with the stock price.

The debate is very clear. We've seen grandparents say they were willing to die, exposing themselves in the epidemic so that their children and grandchildren could have jobs. In other words, health and economic requirements are contradictory in these countries. This leads to a staggering question that is rarely posed clearly: What dangers are we willing to take, individually and collectively, in the present and the future, for our society to function every day?

The answer is clear: There are many who are willing to take risks when others have no choice. Contrary to this fact, the better a society protects and rewards these people, whose exposure to danger is vital to others, the better it protects others from dangers.

For society to function, of course, it must first of all be able to protect as hard as possible those whose work is vital to its functioning and cannot be done by distance.

And more and more wealth and work must be produced in these defence, prevention, to ensure the present and the future; sectors which, directly or indirectly, have been given the mission of protecting life: health, food, ecology, hygiene, education, security, trade, information; and many others.

We need to understand that these exposed sectors, which provide the conditions for the vital functioning of our societies, are among the riots. Until recently, they were treated only as services and therefore had no potential for growth.

The good news is that they have become not only services but also industries capable of increasing their productivity. Now we understand better the support they need to be given to fulfill their mission. By making every effort for the workers and industries of life to take their rightful place, we will save nations, civilizations and the economy.

While we wait for such a strategy to be built, we may recommend to those privileged to work while limited, to devote little of their leisure time (at least if they have) and to ask in particular how they can be useful, whether at their work or outside their work, without being exposed themselves, to those who expose themselves. So starting with this modest way, we must serve the survival of human beings. /Mapo/