COVID should have taught us many lessons. Andrew Nikiforuk has enumerated 10 of them. Robert Reich has added another 8. Here are three of the most important:
1. Workers are always essential.
We couldn't have survived without millions of warehouse, delivery, grocery, and hospital workers literally risking their lives. Yet most of these workers are paid squat. Amazon touts its $15 minimum wage but it totals only about $30,000 a year. Most essential workers still don't have health insurance or paid leave. Many of their employers (including Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, to take but two examples) didn't give them the personal protective equipment they needed.
2. Healthcare is a basic right.
You know how you got your vaccine without paying a dime? That's how all health care could be. Yet too many Americans who contracted COVID-19 got walloped with humongous hospital bills. By mid-2020, about 3.3 million people had lost employer-sponsored coverage, and the number of uninsured increased by 1.9 million. Research by the Urban Institute found that people with chronic disease, Black Americans, and low-income children were most likely to have delayed or forgone care during the pandemic.
3. Billionaires aren't the answer.
The combined wealth of America's 657 billionaires grew by $1.3 trillion—or 44.6 percent—during the pandemic. Jeff Bezos, with $183.9 billion, became the richest man in the U.S. and the world. Larry Page, cofounder of Google, added $11.8 billion to his $94.3 billion fortune, and Sergey Brin, Google's other cofounder, added $11.4 billion. Yet billionaire's taxes are lower than ever. Wealthy Americans today pay one-sixth the rate of taxes their counterparts paid in 1953.
These are the kind of lessons that should come as a slap across the face. We'll see if that's what happens.
Image: Alamy
