I started this journal planning to do a daily entry for what was looming as the two critical weeks of the pandemic and our response to managing it. I kept going to monitor an eagerly awaited flattening of the curve and now I need to continue to see if snap-back means what it suggests. Also, I couldn’t resist adopting the 40 days and 40 nights’ template for biblical plague and pestilence. It has been instructive to observe the human response. Many are getting twitchy about catching the road out.
Fueled by social media we now have a new vocabulary for our times, of which the road out and snap-back are just the most recent. Pronunciations are intriguing such as sell fisolation which suggests either retail home insulation or share-broker advice to sell fisolation. The political class gave you lifters and leaners (thanks Joe Hockey). In the same spirit I give you spenders and stackers as we find out who will spend stimulus payments to grease the economy and who will simply add it to their Scrooge McDuck money bin. By the way, what did happen to all that money we gave the banks in the GFC?
More people also now appreciate that preventive health is more efficacious than repairing humans when they break down. NSW schools go back on a stepped attendance program from May 11 and elective surgery can recommence, again in a phased fashion. Virgin has submitted to voluntary administration with the loss of 16,000 staff and contractors. The oil price is in negative territory and the RBA (Reserve Bank of Australia) has provided an update on what we have done and how we are going to get out of it. The Newmarch aged care facility has demonstrated what a bad idea it is to go to work sick, with 14 staff and 28 residents testing positive to COVID-19.
Nearly 2.5 million cases worldwide now with 170,380 deaths. Australia’s total cases grew by only 13 to 6,628 with still 71 deaths. The state of NSW recorded only 6 more (total 2,659 and still 30 deaths).
This is an irresistible time for thinking, for those that do. Among the current round of ideas generated by the great disturbance, and scenarios for the future, are the following:
- The case for a Universal Basic Income in the UK was pressed in a Prospect article (Stewart Lindsay, “The case for a universal basic income is stronger than ever” Prospect, April 16, 2020). The author claims “(the) scheme would, for the first time, create an unconditional income floor, boost the incomes of the poorest families, cut poverty levels, reduce inequality, strengthen universalism and cut means-testing.”
- Another Prospect article looks at how we pay for all this financial propping up (Tim Pitt, “We must soon reckon with the most contentious economic question: who pays for this crisis?” Prospect, April 17, 2020). Pitt notes that “our tax system is riddled with perverse incentives and needs updating for the digital age. From business and property tax to the balance of taxation between income and wealth, the system needs to change” and concludes “the central goal should be to build a better, fairer tax system.” Again, this is for the UK and we don’t have any of those problems in Australia, do we?
- An implied suspicion of corporate malfeasance underlines Bernard Keane’s Crikey article (“Corporations are working to mould the post-pandemic economy in their interests”, April 20, 2020). In it he says: “Despite the pandemic, what hasn’t changed, certainly in Australia, are the power structures that give corporations sway over public policy: a virtually unregulated political donations system, an almost complete lack of transparency around influence-wielding, a revolving door between the political system and corporate appointments, a media sector dominated by partisan and ideological media outlets, a politicized public service and the absence of a federal anti-corruption body.”
- Erstwhile Labor Treasurer Wayne Swan says we need a deep discussion about a new social contract for the 21st century (Crikey, 20 April, 2020)
Something to think about?
Awesomely Astute 