No. The economy is people plus a whole lot of relationships that economists ignore, but which happen to be critical to a functioning civilisation.
Of course economic collapse hurts people. But there are only two causes of economic collapse - external stressors, and internal mismanagement.
And the only situations in which they're not the same are when physical disasters permanently destroy significant productive capacity. Everything else should be manageable.
Covid - and the Great Depression - both prove the economy is badly mismanaged. It should be possible to hit a pause button on non-essential activities, keep as many people as possible safe, fed, entertained and possibly even educated, and then hit restart when the threat is over.
"Possible" does not mean "trivially easy." But it does mean "Can be handled successfully with some adjustments and minimal attrition."
This culture just can't do it. Its primary engine is debt-fuelled plutocracy and short-term profit-seeking, and it's so inherently unstable it can't cope rationally with a relatively minor and short-lived challenge like a nasty but not spectacularly deadly virus.
Of course economic collapse hurts people. But there are only two causes of economic collapse - external stressors, and internal mismanagement.
And the only situations in which they're not the same are when physical disasters permanently destroy significant productive capacity. Everything else should be manageable.
Covid - and the Great Depression - both prove the economy is badly mismanaged. It should be possible to hit a pause button on non-essential activities, keep as many people as possible safe, fed, entertained and possibly even educated, and then hit restart when the threat is over.
"Possible" does not mean "trivially easy." But it does mean "Can be handled successfully with some adjustments and minimal attrition."
This culture just can't do it. Its primary engine is debt-fuelled plutocracy and short-term profit-seeking, and it's so inherently unstable it can't cope rationally with a relatively minor and short-lived challenge like a nasty but not spectacularly deadly virus.