Greed makes things worse - 6 march 2020

Whether coronavirus turns into a pandemic or not, the ongoing panic buying frenzy is evidence that we've become a very sick society indeed.

After four decades of domination by a political establishment obsessed with hard-right neoliberal cult of the self, 'greed is a virtue' dogma we've become so normalised to individualism and consumerism that huge numbers of people have become absolutely incapable of even seeing the bigger picture.

Of course it's fine buying a bit of extra soap and hand gel if you're planning to follow the medical advice and keep your hands clean. That's sensible stuff, and the resulting rise in demand if we all behaved like this could be managed.

But those of you sitting at home with a stockpile of litres of hand soap and alcohol hand gel, all the medicines and cleaning products you could get your hands on, and hundreds of toilet rolls, you're actively making the problem worse, because in order to slow/stop the spread of the virus we all need to wash our hands and maintain our hygiene, and you're selfishly hogging the supply, and denying other people the means of doing so.

Essentially what you're proving is the fact that you think you can individualistically consume your way out of a problem that quite evidently requires a planned collaborative approach.

The capitalistic mindset tells people that the more money they spend, and the more stuff they hoard, the safer they'll be, even when it should be staggeringly obvious that this kind of myopic self-interest is ridiculously counter-productive, and that what's actually needed is responsibility and a collaborative approach.

And as is so often the case with capitalism, the people who will end up paying the highest price for this short-sighted greed of the minority are the most vulnerable people in society (in this case the elderly and the immunocompromised).

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