Naomi Klein: How to Beat Coronavirus Capitalism

Apr 24, 2020

Naomi Klein, bestselling author of Shock Doctrine, This Changes Everything, and most recently, On Fire: The (Burning) Case for Green New Deal, discusses ways the coronavirus crisis is already remaking our sense of the possible. In both good and bad ways. 鈥淚n times of crisis, seemingly impossible ideas suddenly become possible,鈥� says Klein. 鈥淏ut whose ideas? Sensible, fair ones, designed to keep as many people as possible safe, secure, and healthy? Or predatory ideas, designed to further enrich the already unimaginably wealthy while leaving the most vulnerable further exposed?鈥�

As the Trump administration and a Republican Congress push for corporate bailouts and sneak in regulatory rollbacks, progressive activists are demanding a #PeoplesBailout and shoring up of the social safety net.

鈥淭he world economy is seizing up in the face of cascading shocks,鈥� Klein reminds us. 鈥淚f there is one things history teaches us, it鈥檚 that moments of shock are profoundly volatile. We either lose a whole lot of ground, get fleeced by elites and pay the price for decades. Or we win progressive victories that seemed impossible just a few weeks earlier.鈥�

鈥淭his is no time to lose our nerve,鈥� she says.

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