When we get through these horrors - as most of us will - I hope for a new society. One which values the people who truly bore the load: the fireys, ambos, nurses, doctors, teachers, truckies, cops, cleaners - and yes, the shelf-stackers and checkout people at Woolies and Coles.
Neoliberal capitalism , an empire of castles in the air, has failed us utterly. The exaltation of the executive suite, with its $25m a year CEOs and its relentless greed in pursuit of “shareholder value, ” has helped propel us to the calamity that engulfs us.
Trump, of course, is the personification of this cult that worships the survival of the ruthless rich. It will be one of history’s great ironies that this lying narcissist, this worst-ever American President, will preside over the destruction of the only thing he has ever loved.
We have lessons still to learn. It is people who will need help, not companies. The unemployed. The low paid. Casuals. Single-parents. The disabled. Kids looking for careers in the coming recession. The sick and elderly. Small business people with maybe two or three employees.
Jesus I hope we get right. Because only then will we lift the burden of injustice and inequality that afflicts so many of us.
