Helaine Olen suggests that our ineffective governmental actions in the face of COVID-19 are not just the result of the Trump Administration’s chronic incompetence, but of a society which has been trained to be can’t-do:
Because the federal government refuses to step in and allocate ventilators to the areas with greatest need, state governors are being forced into a frantic bidding war, fighting one another for a chance at getting at least a small portion of the needed equipment for their residents. At New York Presbyterian Hospital, and no doubt others soon to come, one ventilator is simultaneously serving what’s been described as “multiple” patients.
Still, President Trump refused to trigger the Defense Production Act until Friday. Doing so earlier would have allowed him to demand that American industries manufacture needed medical equipment as a first priority, so that those who needed testing kits, ventilators and protective gear the most could have easily obtained them. Instead: “We’re getting what we need without the heavy hand of government,” the administration ludicrously claimed earlier this week.
The more likely reason? The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a powerful business lobbying group, didn’t want it to happen. So the powers that be decided it couldn’t be done.
Today, desperate for hospital beds — beds, it must be pointed out, that do not exist, in part, because of relentless cutbacks to improve hospital profits and operating margins — cities are taking over hotels, college dorms and even convention centers to care for the sick. But when city officials in Philadelphia tried to reopen Hahnemann Hospital, which closed last year, they hit a roadblock: the city couldn’t or wouldn’t come up with enough money to satisfy the private equity firm that shut the facility down. “We just think they’re unaware of the realities of the market,” a spokesman for the building’s owner told NBC’s Philadelphia affiliate.
And we can trace this to the pervasive presence of corporations in government. This is called capturing the agency in the lingo, and refers to the regulatory agency coming under the influence of the corporate entities it should be regulating. This is only exacerbated by the Republican religious that regulation is bad.
This is why one of my overarching themes is that the various sectors of society have differing goals, and mixing both methods and personnel between sectors – such as as a businessman into government – is often a toxic, not inspired, affair that should be avoided, unless the procedures have been sufficiently analyzed to understand the likely consequences, negative and positive, and the personnel have undergone the training to understand, oh, government doesn’t have a profit margin.
Oh, and my recommendation to Philly would be to take the damn hospital in an eminent domain proceeding, do it in a single afternoon meeting, even if you have to break the rules about public hearings and so forth, and if they scream and sue, tell them, Fine, scream and sue. We’re still using this building to save citizens. What the fuck are you doing to save citizens’ lives?
And if they dare to utter a single word, the response should be:
You dumb capitalists, you already had a chance to be a productive part of society. Cry & whine all you want, but we’re taking your hospital, we’re broadcasting your extremely poor response to all corners of thecountry so all know who is not a member in good standing of our society, and the names of all corporate officers will be part of that news blast. You had your chance, now FOAD. Seriously.
Yeah, reading Olen’s piece made me seriously crabby about capitalism tonight.
