The Mightiest Country’s Weaknesses are Exposed

By JASON SIBERT

The recent COVID-19 crises proved how unprepared our government is to deliver security – real security.

While our government has persisted in giving the American people a military designed to fight a ground war with the Soviet Union in a post-Soviet world, our citizens have recently learned how unsecure they really are. Our country’s leaders have rightly told people to stay at home to prevent the spread of COVID-19. However, we’ve also witnessed a country that’s very unprepared for a major pandemic. Our country doesn’t have the hospital beds, ventilators, or testing devices that it needs.

Another big issue is the nature of our economy. Our country’s economy, and other wealthy country’s economies, have evolved into human-touch economies. The biggest employing industry is retail, which is followed by the restaurant, healthcare, and hotel/motel industries. It’s only natural that in an era of social distancing in a human-touch economy that we have a lot of unemployment.

The unemployment revels how unsecure our workforce is during a pandemic. However, it’s worth noting that our workforce is vulnerable even in non-pandemic times. Most workers in the human-touch economy have little access to sick leave and often make so little they can’t handle a $400 emergency. Millions still lack health insurance, even 10 years after the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

When workers lack paid sick leave, they sometimes go to work when sick and spread whatever they have, including COVID-19, to others around them and make our situation worse. The lack of health insurance will leave some with no way to cover COVID-19 medical bills. When working people can’t handle an emergency, they have no money to spend in a pandemic and don’t participate in the economy as consumers. This leads to even more unemployment.

The Donald Trump administration has increased military spending and our country is currently spending over $700 billion on this item, more than the next 12 countries combined! His nuclear weapons policy revolves around cancelling treaties like the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and the Intermediate Range Nuclear-Forces Treaty. The president has said he might not renew the New Start Treaty. In addition, Trump continued the nuclear weapons modernization program started under President Barack Obama, a decision that’s costing us trillions of dollars.

Real security means protecting the health of our country and producing an economy that protects workers in the middle-to-low income spectrum. We need to realize that nuclear proliferation is a threat to our country and all of humanity and reduce the number of nuclear weapons in the world via arms control. This would free up lots of cash for the things we really need.

We can also reduce spending on conventional arms and expand paid sick leave to every worker. In addition, we should also create a stream of tax revenue through a Social Security-type tax split between employees and employers. It’s also time to expand health insurance to every worker through a more generous Affordable Car Act. We should also convert factories that make conventional weapons into making ventilators and Covid-19 test kits.

The problem with our current military-industrial complex – as coined by President Dwight Eisenhower — is that there are communities that expect jobs through both military bases and the manufacturing of military hardware. There are also companies that expect government contracts, which lead to profits, to make the hardware. Our country’s biggest problem right now is taking a serious look at security!

Jason Sibert worked for the Suburban Journals in the St. Louis area for over a decade and is currently executive director of the Peace Economy Project in St. Louis, Mo. Email jasonsibert@hotmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, May 1, 2020

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