Epidemics, I wrote, "have a way of revealing underlying truths about the societies they impact." This one has already done so, and with terrifying speed. What it reveals about the United States--not just this administration, but also our health-care system, our bureaucracy, our political system itself--should make Americans as fearful as the Japanese who heard the "distant thunder" of Perry's guns.

... The United States, long accustomed to thinking of itself as the best, most efficient, and most technologically advanced society in the world, is about to be proved an unclothed emperor.

... by then the new threat was so obvious that enough people got it, enough people understood that a national mobilization was necessary, enough people understood that things could not go on that way indefinitely. Could it happen here, too?

The (New) Great Depression - Umair Haque

Why America's Response to Coronavirus Adds Disaster to Catastrophe

Depression means: After they lose their incomes Americans will then lose their savings, their homes, whatever other assets they had, like retirement and college and funds and so forth. They will struggle to afford the basics, even more than the already did -- remember, America was already an economy in which 75% struggled to pay basic bills, like food, housing, and utilities, even before Coronavirus. Now imagine them being even poorer than that. The stage has now been set for a depression.

... It sets the stage for depression -- by being a bailout of capitalism's mega-rich, who already have too much, while the average person and his or her small business have long had too little. Instead of massively investing to create a surplus of critical resources, it...doesn't invest in anything at all.