Business-Oriented politics and the Pandemic

The power of capitalist rooted, business-oriented policies in political decisions was incredibly detrimental to the United States ability to control and manage COVID-19 in the global pandemic. The Trump Administration, in particular the Cabinet, is the wealthiest in modern history. The members have little-to-no experience in government but plenty in business endeavors. As a result, most of the decisions they make are designed to benefit the owning class and neglect the interest of the working American people.

We’ve already been aware since the beginning of his term that his background in business was going to be at the forefront and that it would bleed into his decisions for the US going forward. An article written and posted on the Pew Research website states, “That would be more business people with no public-sector experience than have ever served in the Cabinet at any one time, according to a review and analysis by the Pew Research Center”. Additionally, the President himself is the wealthiest president the USA has ever had, having been a businessman and reality television personality before taking on his executive branch position. His background and lifestyle make him incredibly detached from the American public, and combined with abnormally frequent lying and verbal or online outbursts, he leads his administration with an inability to maintain stable control of issues that don’t result in a tax break for corporations.

In the beginning of the pandemic, we didn’t invest enough in testing and weren’t taking the other countries such as Italy and China who were hit hardest earlier this year seriously. In the research read on the Brookings website, on March 5th we had just passed 100 cases in the country and then on March 11, only 6 days later, we had passed 1000 cases. Although it wasn’t necessarily a huge problem for a long time in the US before something was done, there definitely should have been more precautions taken and it should’ve been evident that things needed to be done urgently. The president even was quoted saying that the virus was actually a conspiracy and said it would go away, and then changed his mind only a few days later and named it a national pandemic.

The downfalls of business oriented politics are mostly found in the fact that there is a mindset that goes into business which is a focus on profit. When dealing with a country and the function of it, although profit and economy is something that has to be focused on, it cannot come before the responsibility that needs to be taken to help the citizens. Additionally, in order for the economy to function it needs citizens to buy into it. The middle class is what supports our entire economy and keeps us as a first world country, but even they are neglected in favor of personal and short lived profit.  Based on data collected by Pew research, the fact that people of color are more likely to be financially ruined and have health compromised as well as young people proves that there are less precautions being taken to help those in worse situations during a pandemic in this country. Majority of minorities and young people also are the ones who were deemed “essential workers” who have had to keep their jobs, risking their lives and health during this entire pandemic. That is another example of the federal government not taking the well-being of minority groups who they are gaining direct economic benefits and taking advantage of all that they are doing for this country and there is data backing that up in an article written by Belfer center.

Although the public feedback ends up with most of the population of the country feeling as though hospitals and medical centers have done a great job responding and adapting to changes due to COVID-19, less than half of those people believe that the federal government did a good job responding and providing help during this time. More than half also agrees that the job they did was poor, according to more research done by Pew Research. This goes to show that the job has definitely not been done well enough because not even the citizens believe that the administration had their best in mind during a situation like this which is reiterated by an article on the national post.

if we had worn masks and social distanced properly the pandemic would have been controlled by August, and the CDC states that we could control it in 4-8 weeks. So why is there no nation-wide shutdown? The CDC and trump administration also lack good communication due to the lack of compromise able to be made with the trump administration. They wanted the states to handle the impactful things, and leaving decisions like masks and school closings up to the states in the beginning has led to a divide in the country and certain states are worse off than others due to the lack of states enforcing caution and regulations to get rid of COVID-19. The goal of the administration while handling the pandemic has been to secure the economy, not control the virus. As a result of this, there are eighteen states in dire need of a shut down and they most likely will not see one. The number of infected people each day grows by the tens of thousands, setting a global record each time. Americans are barred from most of the countries their passports allow them access to. This is the same administration that completely neglected the working people in their original bill for the virus, the COVID-19 relief Bill, and had the House of Representatives not put up a fight, most of the working people in this country would be entirely neglected. The prioritization of the economy is more of a prioritization of corporate profit, because it neglects those who make the economy run.