GOVERNANCE ON THE LINE

Helena Cobban in Just World News

... I grew up in England at a time of some non-trivial economic disruption there. The thing I'm missing here in the US today, that I would expect and hope to hear more of, is leaders from different walks of life-- including political leaders-- talking publicly about how "we are all in the current crisis together", and "we need to take extraordinary steps to help the most vulnerable among us in these difficult times," and so on.

I haven't heard anything of that, yet.

Well, I guess this is only to be expected from a country in which medical care has been deeply marketized, where the materially rich are treated like demi-gods, and where the most common assumption in the mainstream media is that people are concerned about the economy primarily as investors, rather than as working families with pressing social and economic needs.

It would be great if the current crisis could lead to a new, richer understanding here of the intimate relationship between the situation of society ("the public good") and the situation of the individual citizens.