THOUGHT LEADERSHIP The marginalised are, of course, not only found in the US: an analysis of UK national health records published in May 2020 showed that black residents and those of Asian descent were at a higher risk of dying from the virus than were white people.14 The World Bank estimates that the pandemic could push about 49-million people into extreme poverty in 2020.15 Almost half of the projected new poor (23-million) will be in subSaharan Africa, with an additional 16-million in South Asia. The measures taken to contain Covid-19 will affect households in many ways, including job loss, loss of remittances, higher prices, rationing of food and other basic goods, and disruptions to healthcare services and education. While the impacts will be felt by most households almost immediately, they will likely be deeper among the poor, who are more vulnerable because of where they live (largely rural with limited access to public health services and dependent on remittances, or in congested informal settlements with no-or-low-quality services); where they work (largely in the informal sector, usually self-employed, and mainly in micro or family enterprises with little or no job security); high dependence on public services, particularly health and education (largely inadequate and overwhelmed health facilities and with school closures comes the end of school feeding schemes as well); and a lack of savings and any form of insurance (largely no personal safety nets).16 In sub-Saharan Africa an individual in the lowest income quintile has only a 4% chance of receiving social assistance from the government in normal times. Covid-19 could help us realise who the real wealth creators are. They are the frontline workers in the caring economy: the nurses and doctors, the shop assistants and delivery drivers, the shelf stackers, the cleaners, the many thousands of volunteers that have come forward to help the health service. Online, they are the people offering free education, performances, exercise classes, financial advice, museum tours, mental health support, the list just goes on. Behind closed doors it is those managing the domestic life: the family members doing their best to keep their children and themselves healthy and happy and sane, the friends joining at a distance via a multitude of platforms.
But the disparities send a clear message: The Covid-19 pandemic is not just a health crisis; it is an environmental justice crisis. Sacoby Wilson summarises as follows: “If we’re going to have a better response to biological disasters or the next climate or technological disaster, we have to understand how racism plays a major role in our policies and how racism and these structural inequalities drive the Haves and Have-Nots. The Haves will get quick access to testing kits. The Haves can follow a stay-athome order and be fine, like someone like me. I am a professor. The Haves who have access to natural spaces and good access to air conditioning and energy efficient homes, good access to healthcare. To address the disparities in Covid-19, we must address our structural inequalities in this country. The first place to start is race and racism.” 17 Mejean and Escobari note that Covid-19 has made explicit the consequences of this less-than-optimal equilibrium and broader worker precarity that is exposing countries to systemic risk. The pandemic is leaving economic disaster in its wake and laying bare a system in need of a reboot. As policymakers turn their focus from public health to the labour market, they can view the crisis as an opportunity to rebuild a more robust and responsive employment system for both workers and companies. They suggest that a robust economic recovery hinges on at least two policy agendas: expanding unemployment insurance to protect workers through this and future shocks, and efficiently facilitating their reemployment. If in doing so, companies and policymakers also raise the skill equilibrium and make work less precarious, the country will emerge more resilient. There is an imperative but also an opportunity to emerge from this economic shock with a more decent (in the proper meaning of the word) labour market – one that assures living wages, safe work environments, a net that catches all, and a springboard that gets people back on their feet. Companies would win here too. But without a clear first-mover advantage, improving the equilibrium demands concerted policy action. We can invest to build a digitally savvy, surefooted workforce for the future, or risk furthering the gap between low-, middle-, and high-wage workers, ultimately missing the opportunity for a more resilient society. It is worthwhile reminding us that even as we debate whether it is safe to reopen the economy, for essential workers it never closed. Each morning, during the apex of the deadliest pandemic in a century, these men and women have been venturing out into the epicentre of disease, to cook and clean, deliver food, and carry mail, drive buses and stock shelves, patrol the streets and tend to the ill. Many have paid with their health – some with their lives.18 John Cassidy argues that one of the few consolations of the pandemic is the possibility that it could lead to some progressive changes in the economy and politics. Every day of the unfolding crisis is an argument for universal healthcare, competent government, and better treatment for members of the working class – such as nurses, transit workers, supermarket clerks, and employees at food-processing plants – whose enormous contribution to society has been brought into plain view. Cassidy points to encouraging signs for progressives, such as the rapid moves in Congress to expand paid sick leave, raise the level of unemployment benefits, and provide financial support for small businesses.19 As noted by the International Labour Organisation, “The creation of green jobs is one of the green economy strategies intended to improve social well-being and equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities.”20 Building back better must be better for everyone: due recognition of the “essentials” must form a keystone of the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan.
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