The coronavirus has exposed many weaknesses in our society. One of the most glaring weaknesses is the failure of governments to regulate business. Consider the meatpacking business in Alberta. Alan Freeman writes:
Cases at the Cargill plant have grown exponentially, making it home to one of the largest single outbreaks in the country. As of Thursday, 480 workers had tested positive for COVID-19, including one worker who has died and another who is in critical condition. Another 140 cases in the wider community are linked to the plant, which has been closed, slashing Canada’s beef production.
Another serious outbreak is ravaging the employees at JBS, a beef plant in Brooks, Alta., where 124 cases of COVID-19 have been reported. A big pork plant in Quebec was forced to close for two weeks in late March because of an outbreak and facilities producing poultry have been struck as well in British Columbia. Like nursing homes and prisons, meat processing plants are ideal places for the virus to spread.
And, in Ontario, the provincial government had stopped inspecting long term care homes:
The Ontario government essentially has stopped doing its most comprehensive annual inspections of care homes, called Resident Quality Inspection (RQI). Those inspections require interviews with 40 people related to the home, and meeting standards of care related to issues like infection control, according to Jane Meadus, a staff lawyer for the Advocacy Group for the Elderly, a Toronto-based advocacy group.
Instead of doing these thorough unannounced inspections, the province essentially decided that if a home got any kind of inspection during the year, no matter how light, it would count as a full one. The CBC has discovered that there were only nine of these full inspections were done in 2019 on 626 homes.
The dismantling of regulations has been part of neoliberalism's juggernaut to "cut red tape." To accomplish that goal, politicians established an alliance between business and government:
So in effect, the regulatory system has lost its way. Instead of protecting the vulnerable and assuring that minimum health and safety standards are maintained, it’s been part of a coordinated undermining of these very protections, whether at nursing homes or meatpacking plants.
A cooperative approach with business is nice in principle. But regulators and operators should never be in bed together. The public interest must always trump private interests.
When private interest trumps public interest, people pay -- with their lives.
Image: Government of Alberta
14 comments:
No amount of regulation will protect us from mega factories that are designed for profit and not food security.
The same could be said for the huge nursing and retirement homes that are springing up countrywide.
When we have our elders welfare controlled by a board of directors in China or our meat supply controlled by a board in North Carolina or Brasil then we should expect issues.
Such is the globalised world!
TB
Viruses take aim at weaknesses in the body, TB. This virus has laid bare the weaknesses of globalization.
Back in the Mulroney years the deterioration of meat inspectors began. it was not just about keeping corporations happy, but to "cut the deficit". some voters and politicians wanted to reduce the number of federal government workers. Meat inspectors were one group which was attacked. Who needed them any how. the corporations would ensure the products were safe. Now go back and remember all the infestations of this and that we had over the years. now we have the real big one and these corporations don't care, as long as the profit margins remain high All political parties share in the blame for this also. Didn't hear any of them advocating for more meat inspectors. No one wants to pay taxes for the services they receive from the government. Well this is what happens. PEOPLE DIE.
When you look at the lack of inspections in Ontario, it ought to be considered manslaughter. People died because of a lack of action on the party of the government and that covers all of them, to protect seniors in care homes. Its been going on for at least 30 years as I can recall, just from articles in the press from time to time. It wasn't just about making things easy for the care home chains, it was about reducing the number of inspectors to save money so taxpayers didn't have to pay as much. No one wants to pay taxes. Well if you don't pay taxes, there is a reduction in services and the result is: PEOPLE DIE. I
WHAT MOST PEOPLE DIDN'T UNDERSTAND WAS THEY WOULD BE THE ONES DYING. Politicians wanted to cater to the voters, gave them what they wanted lower taxes and with that came MORE DEATH. It isn't just neo liberal policies, its the unwillingness of tax payers to pay taxes. There is that old line about, so you shall sow, so shall you reap.
Watching this interview makes one realize that the issues are much larger and insidious than previously imagined.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zi6ae6kZNqE&feature=youtu.be
CS
You get what you pay for, e.a.f, -- or what you don't pay for.
Thanks, for the link, CS. Chomsky tells it like it is -- not just about this virus, but also about climate breakdown.
That video above was post 4 days ago, Owen; and, just recently Blackrocks has entered the Canadian Realm. To me it looks like the continuation of a downward spiral pandemic or no pandemic.
CS
Michelle Goldberg -- who writes for the New York Times -- believes that the virus has exposed a country that was broken long ago, CS. Take a look at her column:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/25/opinion/sunday/trump-coronavirus.html
this virus has laid bare the weaknesses of globalization.
I would argue that this virus has laid bare the weakness of neoliberalism not globalization. If anything the current worry about globalization is simply a byproduct of neoliberalism.
Basically globalization is nothing more than an offshoot of the rather simple-minded theories economic theories of neoliberalism.
Neoliberalism seems to have decided that the only thing that matters is shareholder equity. Therefore everything that might affect shareholder equity is bad. This includes things such as unions that might actually ask for higher wages, better benefits, or even better working conditions goes against neoliberal theory. Maintaining a functioning working population does not seem to occur to them. Maintaining a functioning society does not seem to have occurred to them
If labour is so unrewarding, then joining a drug gang becomes a rational economic decision.
If we extend the globalization thought to most or all our activities, then there is no reason to carry out industrial or manufacturing activities in any given place, or for that matter even agricultural or health activities since we can buy them from somewhere else.
The problem is that sometimes we cannot buy things from somewhere else because somewhere else does not want to sell them or is it an even worse state than we are.
I remember an economist discussing the fact that it was cheaper to import something from Australia than to produce it from Canada. He was correct if everything works well, a minor little detail like a war or drought never seemed to cross his mind.
Yes, Owen it was broken long ago. Do you see the parallel between the US and Canada. I was squeamish about finding out that the US darling Blackrocks has been invited into Canada. Are we to expect that our Canadian leaders are willing to go down that same path as our neighbour to the south?
CS
Globalization is rooted in neoliberal policies, jrk. So you're right. What has been exposed is the fraud behind neoliberalism. The question is, having been so exposed, will neoliberalism be consigned to the dustbin of history?
I hope that doesn't happen, CS. The US is a cautionary tale -- a blockbuster of a cautionary tale.
!?
Trump Policy Maximizes Deaths in Food Factories
https://www.emptywheel.net/2020/04/28/trump-policy-maximizes-deaths-in-food-factories/
Some good info in here on how things are going in the US food chain.
It's interesting that this information comes from the middle of the United States -- Trump country -- where supposedly things are going just fine, !?
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