Globally speaking, the Covid-19 pandemic has had an unequal impact. The poor are dying at a double rate than the affluent people. A report of the Guardian claimed, in the UK, the most deprived areas are hit the hardest with 55.1 deaths per 100,000 people compared to 25.3 deaths per 100,000 people in the least deprived areas.
In the US, a Los Angeles County report claimed, poor people are three times more likely to die because of Covid-19. The higher death rates of the poor display a lethal economic inequality that has produced stark geographic, educational, and health deprivations shaping the global effects of the pandemic.
On the economic front, 81% of the workforce has experienced full or partial closure of the workplace during the past four months. The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimated that “lost working hours” because of the Covid-19 induced lockdown are now equivalent to more than 300 million full-time jobs.
Millions of people are working fewer hours and nearly 200 million people may end up losing their jobs. This will certainly have a “massive poverty impact,” especially among the 1.6 billion informal sector workers of the world. Contrarily, the world’s richest segment is amassing huge wealth through the pandemic.
For instance, the price of Amazon’s share has reached a new high recently. Bloomberg Billionaires Index revealed that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has gained $24 billion since the beginning of 2020. One can claim, considering the uneven impact that coronavirus is not a leveller.
The claim is certainly true; the poor are losing everything while the richest are hardly affected. But this claim is not a justified one since the virus does not have an intention of its own to discriminate. It is likely to infect everyone if the opportunity comes.
Then, the only justifiable explanation of this baffling differential impact is the existing precondition -- the unequal world – in which coronavirus has appeared. We always hear about the growth of the economy, the rise of per capita income, reduction of poverty, and many other indicators that stand for development.
This rhetoric of progress creates an illusion of advancement. However, the reality is that there are three worlds in one Earth. The cause and extent of this “shocking” global disparity will become clearer if we explore the ways global capitalism works today.
In 2019, the GDP of the world was $88,081.13 billion but the top 20 economies received almost 79% of it. We do not seem to care about the role of all the other countries in this economic growth. The present form of capitalism has separated the locations of production and locations the realization and appropriation of values.
The trend is robust now, and is even spreading further across the globe. A recent briefing by The Economist confirms that the world is more import-dependent today than 20 years ago.
In an economic system like this, the production bases earn an extremely low rate of profit while the capital owners take the maximum surplus value. For instance, in our garment industry, the wages of the workers only make up 3% of the ultimate retail price.
Dispersions of production to locations with untapped human resources are producing surplus values which can be extracted and transferred to another location -- the capitalist centres. Thus, inequality is created and sustained amid exceptional economic growth.
The World Inequality Report 2018 has revealed that since 1980, the top 1% of the population captured 27% of total growth while the bottom 50% captured only 12%.
Hence, distribution of the global labour income is extremely unequal. For instance: ILO has identified that in 2017, the top decile earned 48.9% of all labour income, whereas the poorest 50%, ie the global workers earned just 6.4% of the world’s labour income.
Despite the fact that our food production ability has increased, we still have hungry people in the world. WHO estimated, 820 million people did not have enough to eat in 2018. The number of food- hungry people has increased for the third year in a row.
The concerning disparity within humongous economic growth is resultant of the madness of the capitalist logic as David Harvey has rightly pointed out in the book Marx, Capital and the Madness of Economic Reason.
The desire for profit and accumulation in capitalism has seemingly no end -- a tendency Hegel had termed “bad infinity” in the early 1810s.
The irrationalities of the current economic system is attested by the fact that one can deposit money in a savings account of any financial institution and the money increases at a compound rate without the depositor doing anything. It reflects the role of money in capitalism today. Money now has both use and exchange value.
It can be lent out to others to produce surplus value and the interest given is the exchange value. Recently, a report of CNBC claimed, Berkshire Hathaway had a record $137 billion in cash and equivalent instruments on its balance sheet at the end of the first quarter of 2020.
The money is ready to be invested in companies for profit in the coming days. Since the pandemic started, the rich are likely to be benefitted as it is good to have a lot of money, but it is even better to have it when nobody else has it.
Consequently, the poor segments who are likely to be poorer following the pandemic will be forced to work even at lower wages making the rich even richer. The root of these “insane forms” can be traced back to the Industrial Revolution in 1760.
It has led the countries to be connected in an unprecedented way. Ironically, since then, the world is also divided into consumers and producers, and capitalists and workers. The world economy has evolved a lot since then, because of the inherent need of capitalism as a system to grow bigger and to look for ever more profit.
Hence, consumerism drives 70% or even 80% of the contemporary capitalist economies. The neoliberal global economy over the past 50 years or so has been propelled by the power of demand and needs driven capitalism.
Covid-19 is damaging the instantaneous consumerism that dominates the rich countries, while global production bases like Bangladesh and other countries in Asia, Africa, and South America are also hurting consequently. In a recent article, Katie Jones revealed that apparel consumption in China is reduced by 40-50% compared to pre-pandemic times.
The $5 billion worth of cancellation or halting of production order at the apparel industry of Bangladesh is a prime example of such worldwide impact of Covid-19 ensued by the sudden seizure of consumption demand. The travel and transport industry is another major sector severely affected by the pandemic.
This industry in the US alone has experienced a decline of 81% or $519 billion in revenue. This is heavily linked with tourism and many other service sectors. The consequences can be very severe as the World Travel and Tourism Council predicted a staggering 50 million jobs could be at risk in the industry.
This form of consumerism- based capitalism needed massive investments in infrastructures. Thus, in the last 10 years, we have witnessed a global rush to build bigger airports, mega projects like reinvigorating the silk-road, luxurious hotels, and expensive restaurants, mind-boggling theme parks, and massive boosts in public entertainment events, etc.
These sites of capital accumulation are now deserted. Global workforces that operated mega projects, sites, or events are being laid-off but they have no noticeable support mechanism for sustenance. This crisis is going to worsen further as many cultural, entertainment, sports, business, and professional events are being subsequently cancelled around the world.
In Bangladesh, we could not celebrate the Bengali New Year and are not likely to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr in the usual manner. Experiential consumerism centring these kinds of events is in standstill globally, thus, inflicting millions of people with uncertainties.
More than 265 thousand people have died worldwide of Covid-19 during the last 4 months. Many people are suffering from starvation, loss of income, distress, heightened violence. Nonetheless, this crisis is an opportunity to make historical changes in the way the world runs today.
David Harvey, in a recent piece, has argued the Covid-19 crisis is also an opportunity for anti-capitalist thinking. We have all realized that to limit the spread of the virus we need lockdowns and social distancing which are basically collective forms of action.
Similarly, collective action is absolutely necessary to ensure a dignified life for all. Capitalism has created a society in which most of us are not free to do what we want, because we are actually bound to produce wealth for the capitalist classes.
For example: If the 4.5 million garment workers in Bangladesh had enough resources to support themselves they would not have to risk their lives and start garment production at a minimum wage while many were in safety of their homes. If we can ensure that everyone the basic necessities of life, only then we can hope to emancipate humanity from alienating work.
We can take a lead from the egalitarian experiments that the pandemic has forced us to adopt. We are already experimenting with alternative systems of resource distribution: Free supply of basic foods to the poorer groups through volunteers, many are facilitating a process through which agricultural products reach from the farmers to the consumers devoid of any middlemen, there are platforms for free medical consultation via digital mediums, and so on.
We should all join in to continue this form of solidarity so that everybody has a decent meal at least once or twice a day even after Covid-19 passes over. This expectation is not utopian. These are signs of a new society -- probably this is why capitalists are anxious to get back to the usual.
Instead of returning to business as usual and restoring everything to a pre-pandemic time, we must start making ground for a new society -- otherwise we will be awaiting another unequal pandemic. We must strive to free ourselves from the demon of capitalism.
To do so, we must first recognize that the current crisis is not just the coronavirus, rather it is capital poised against us all.
Mohammad Tareq Hasan is an anthropologist and teaches at the University of Dhaka.
