“They’re not doing this because they think it’s the most effective way to alleviate suffering during a pandemic-they have these ideas lying around that they now see an opportunity to implement,” Klein said. Klein says we’re already seeing disaster capitalism play out on the national stage: In response to the coronavirus, Trump has proposed a $700 billion stimulus package that would include cuts to payroll taxes (which would devastate Social Security) and provide assistance to industries that will lose business as a result of the pandemic. This aftermath is characterized by “ disaster capitalism,” calculated, free-market “solutions” to crises that exploit and exacerbate existing inequalities. History is a chronicle of “shocks”-the shocks of wars, natural disasters, and economic crises-and their aftermath. This chain of events isn’t unique to the crisis sparked by the coronavirus it’s the blueprint politicians and governments have been following for decades known as the “shock doctrine,” a term coined by activist and author Naomi Klein in a 2007 book of the same name. These are the perfect conditions for governments and the global elite to implement political agendas that would otherwise be met with great opposition if we weren’t all so disoriented.
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