COVID-19 Pandemic: An Emblem of the Failure of Neoliberalism
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The current geopolitical order exacerbating the COVID-19 pandemic is extremely indicative of a global disturbance of what we call neoliberalism.
Its expansion brought about by the neoliberal-globalization[1] agenda of imperialism has contributed to the fact that for the past decades, our world has witnessed 4 massive epidemics — Ebola, SARS, MERS, and now COVID-19 (nCov). Currently, as of March 6, 2021, COVID-19 has already infected 116 million people and caused over 2.58 million deaths globally. The biggest number of stricken and dying are in the US, India, Brazil, Russia, and the UK which cumulatively account for over half of cases (51.15%) and nearly half of deaths (44.61%).
As the pandemic continues to wreak havoc to a massive global extent, it has not proved anything but gravely exposed the severity of our country’s aspect of wealth and wage inequality, environmental degradation, unemployment, and most especially the health care system — characteristics of a neoliberal political economy. Along with the 2008 global financial crisis and even the Great Depression, the pandemic crisis has exposed many of the fallacies of the neoliberal capitalist political economy. In fact, it has also triggered the sharpest and deepest economic contraction in the history of capitalism (Roubini, 2020)[2].
As Noam Chomsky says in an interview on EURACTIV, ‘Coronavirus pandemic has once again proven the colossal failure of the neoliberal variant of capitalism’ (Magdaleno, 2020)[3] The title of this essay is, “COVID-19 Pandemic: An Emblem of the Failure of Neoliberalism” as the role of neoliberalism is worth addressing as its forces influence if not dictate many dangerous failings with Philippine healthcare system, especially in this time of COVID-19. What this essay focuses on is how the pandemic has manifested as a multifaceted crisis in a semi-colonial and semi-feudal context like the Philippine society.
The term “neoliberalism” refers to a political and economic philosophy of unbridled capitalism popularized in the 1970s and 1980s. As best defined by the British Marxist economic geographer David Harvey in his book “A Brief History of Neoliberalism”, the core of neoliberalism sits on the doctrine that ‘human well-being can best be advanced by liberating individual entrepreneurial freedoms and skills within an institutional framework characterized by strong private property rights, free markets, and free trade’ (Harvey, 2005)[4].
Harvey’s definition of tenets of neoliberalism is best summarized through the policies of the unlimited liberalization[5] of access to commodity and financial markets; second, the full integration of human needs into the profit-making process, i.e. ever-increasing privatization[6] of public utilities; and, finally, full deregulation[7] of labor (Chang, 2002)[8] and capital.
Dr. Matues (2020, my emphasis)[9] in an online forum held by World Socialist Web Site and the Socialist Equality Party summed up the political and historical significance of how the pandemic has “ [e]xposed in a highly concentrated form the economic, social, political, cultural and even moral bankruptcy of a society based on capitalism.” With these definitions, we can contend that the current global chaos has revealed, if not exposed the absurdity of a neoliberalist economic framework as we suffer from the decades-long effect of privatization of public utilities and social services, market deregulations, and trade liberalization.
In the Philippines, the obvious inability of the government to mitigate the negative impacts brought about by the national lockdown is very revealing of the consequences of the government’s unswerving adherence to neoliberal policies. The year 2019 ended shocking the whole world that a new strain of coronavirus had been detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the initial epicenter of the outbreak. After the 30-days outbreak period of the novel coronavirus, it was only on January 30, 2020, that the first case of the virus in the country was reported by the Department of Health. While the Philippine legislature was busy commemorating the death of the basketball superstar Kobe, the novel virus has already entered the country unknowingly. After two months, the Philippines had become overwhelmed by the health crisis leading to the declaration of a national emergency, national and local lockdowns, and social and physical distancing protocols in public places and establishments in an attempt to reduce the transmission rate. With the emergency power[10] granted by the Philippine Legislature to the Head Executive, the government has increased state expenditure to manage the economic impacts of the virus.
For decades, the goal of the Philippine government is to catch up with the global market hegemony by further opening the national economy to foreign capitalists. In pursuit of these, it has resulted in the creation of laws and policies that benefited the cheap-labor economy, agricultural and trade liberalization e.g., Rice Tarrification Law, and commercialization of basic social services such as education, housing, etc.
Aside from that fact, the government is in pursuit of handing down autonomy power to the private sector to facilitate the national economy, it has also prioritized extreme debt-servicing services that only translate to higher taxes, massive budget cuts in public investments, and less spending on social services.
Neoliberalism, at its outset, is the total abandonment of the state over matters of economics and even basic social services (Institute for Nationalist Studies, 2020)[11]. It means a budget cut on health. In 2020, 10 billion was slashed from the health sector budget[12] which crippled the government’s ability to proactively prevent the outbreak. A budget cut also translates to wage cuts for health workers.
With the privatization and commodification of health care, public utilities like water and basic commodities like surgical face masks, disinfectants, and alcohol are seemingly inaccessible to the poor. These are manifestations of neoliberal policies that promote corporate profit through the privatization of healthcare services and institutions. The interests of the private sector (e.g., profit) are prioritized, while the interests of the public (e.g., healthcare and health), whose labor enables that profit, remain secondary.
As a matter of fact, neoliberalism had a lot to do with the many destructive occurrences that happened in 2020. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, neoliberalism has compromised people’s right to health by turning medical services as well as public utilities such as water into privatized commodities for profit-making. Besides inadequate pandemic response tarnished with corruption, a questionable borrowing amounting to Php 10.33 trillion as of January (de Vera, 2021)[13], and typhoons and floods damaging communities, we witness how the government has used the pandemic as a pretext for media shutdown and attacks e.g. ABS-CBN, Rappler, crackdown and political witch-hunting on the opposition, and persecution and rampant killings against activists.
The result is an economy with a weak foundation. Currently, the failure of neoliberalism is evident, and we are now seeing its effects — poor people are forced to sleep in the streets, workers sell off their labor power under extreme conditions without the security of tenure, and public hospitals are operating with insufficient equipment and facilities, agriculture sector and local manufacturing industry have been defeated with the massive surplus of foreign capital in the country, public schools are overcrowded, overpriced vaccines, etc. With all the economic activities being stagnant and immobile because of the pandemic, the consequences of neoliberalism now translate to even greater vulnerabilities for the poor.
We can see how pandemics became the emblem of the failure of neoliberalism. It has furtherly and explicitly revealed the underbelly of the semi-feudal and semi-colonial Philippine society — gross inequalities and repressive policies. It is anti-poor and anti-people.
As Patnaik (2020) has said, ‘These crises suggest an end-game for the system. They are not mere episodes: the economic crisis is not a mere cyclical downturn but represents a protracted structural crisis.’
Now, more than ever is time to struggle for socialism, for a society that prioritizes people over profit, human rights over the capital, and national democracy over free-market capitalism. Indeed. the COVID-19 pandemic has shown the bankruptcy of neoliberalism and the urgency to struggle for a better society.
Contracted version
Written for: World Literature
Bibliography
Chang, D.-o. (2002). Neoliberal Restructuring of Capital Relations in East and South-East Asia. Neoliberalism: A Critical Reader, 251.
de Vera, B. O. (2021, March 2). PH debt zooms to a new high of P10.33 trillion in January. Retrieved from Philippine Daily Inquirer: https://business.inquirer.net/318799/ph-debt-zooms-to-new-high-of-p10-33-trillion-in-january
Harvey, D. (2005). A Brief History of Neoliberalism. New York, New York, United States: Oxford University Press Inc.
Institute for Nationalist Studies. (2020, October 10). Research at the Mercy of Capital. Retrieved from Institute of Nationalist Studies: https://ins-ph.medium.com/research-at-the-mercy-of-capital-665d837568ed
Magdaleno, C. (2020, April 27). Chomsky: Coronavirus zeigt „kolossales Versagen des Neoliberalismus“. Retrieved from Euractiv: https://www.euractiv.de/section/eu-aussenpolitik/interview/chomsky-coronavirus-zeigt-kolossales-versagen-des-neoliberalismus
Matues, B. (2020, March 30). The COVID-19 pandemic: Capitalism and the making of a social and economic catastrophe. (A. Damon, Interviewer) Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a560eKZXCs
Patnaik, P. (2020, April 12). Pandemic and Socialism. Retrieved from International Panel on Social Progress: https://www.ipsp.org/covid-19/pandemic-and-socialism
Roubini, N. (2020, March 25). Coronavirus pandemic has delivered the fastest, deepest economic shock in history. Retrieved from The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/mar/25/coronavirus-pandemic-has-delivered-the-fastest-deepest-economic-shock-in-history
[1] The hegemonic ideology of both national and international institutions such as the World Health Organization, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Central European Bank, European Parliament, and European Commission (among many others).
[2] Roubini, N. (2020, March 25). Coronavirus pandemic has delivered the fastest, deepest economic shock in history. Retrieved from The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/mar/25/coronavirus-pandemic-has-delivered-the-fastest-deepest-economic-shock-in-history
[3] Magdaleno, C. (2020, April 27). Chomsky: Coronavirus zeigt „kolossales Versagen des Neoliberalismus“. Retrieved from Euractiv: https://www.euractiv.de/section/eu-aussenpolitik/interview/chomsky-coronavirus-zeigt-kolossales-versagen-des-neoliberalismus
[4] Harvey, D. (2005). A Brief History of Neoliberalism. New York, New York, United States: Oxford University Press Inc.
[5] With Liberalization, the economy relaxes to open up to foreign capitals which only exacerbates further the unequal footing of local and foreign businesses and thus securing foreign domination of the economy.
[6] With Privatization, it delegates basic social services such as education and health care to the grip of foreign corporations.
[7] With Deregulation, the state completely hands over the autonomy power to private sectors by reducing the state’s inherent power to oversee and regulate economic activities.
[8] Chang, D.-o. (2002). Neoliberal Restructuring of Capital Relations in East and South-East Asia. Neoliberalism: A Critical Reader, 251.
[9] Matues, B. (2020, March 30). The COVID-19 pandemic: Capitalism and the making of a social and economic catastrophe. (A. Damon, Interviewer) Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a560eKZXCs
[10] From: https://www.rappler.com/nation/duterte-signs-law-granting-special-powers-coronavirus-outbreak
[11] Institute for Nationalist Studies. (2020, October 10). Research at the Mercy of Capital. Retrieved from Institute of Nationalist Studies: https://ins-ph.medium.com/research-at-the-mercy-of-capital-665d837568ed
[12] From: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1168031/funds-for-health-cut-by-p10-billion
[13] de Vera, B. O. (2021, March 2). PH debt zooms to new high of P10.33 trillion in January. Retrieved from Philippine Daily Inquirer: https://business.inquirer.net/318799/ph-debt-zooms-to-new-high-of-p10-33-trillion-in-january
