Volcano Gods Demand Workers

"Re-opening" isn't about saving ordinary workers and earners. You can't save someone by infecting them with a deadly disease. In a world without contact-tracing, therapeutics, tests, PPE, santizing products, etc, more contact means more risk of illness and death.

"Re-opening" is about saving investors: the 1% who constitute the major shareholders in large firms whose calculus goes like this: "30% unemployment means that for every worker who dies on the job, ten more will apply to take their place."

These people are willing to risk workers' lives and shoppers' lives because they believe they do not have a shared microbial destiny with the rest of us. ...

https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/08/volcano-gods/#reopening

#covid19 #CoryDoctorow #Plutonomy #inequality #moloch #unemployment #quarantine #commonweal #deathcult #capitalism