[ad_1]
These days there is a lot of talk about the immediate and future economic repercussions that the Covid-19 pandemic will have. I recognize that, over all these logics and analyzes, over all the economic predictions and figures that disasters advance throughout the world, the main one must prevail: without health and while the pandemic lasts, with its deadly effects, there will be no possible economy.
In fact, those who insist on putting attention to the economy and business over the management of the humanitarian crisis (we have seen it in other countries more or less blatantly: UK, USA, etc.) should be told that the highest prestige and reputation -in economic terms- that a country can have right now is to have resolved the crisis and, above all, having finished with the daily death statistics.
That is the highest degree of economic efficiency that a country can boast of right now, because I do not know who can even imagine that in the midst of the health emergency the economy can develop and grow, except, as always, for a handful of unscrupulous speculators .
This dilemma strongly present in the political debate around the world raises the need for urgent change. A change of concept, of paradigm, of discourse. It is not possible to continue with the current model that allows heads of state to recognize working to “save the economy for those who remain.”
It is urgent go from a market economy to a care economy. Because if this pandemic has taught us anything, it is that not only as a human being but, above all, as a society, we are extremely fragile. And the evidence for this is more than obvious. We boasted in this era of increased life expectancy as a factor of development and quality of life.
The exponent of our advanced societies is the aging capacity of our population and their access to the dream of long and golden retirements. Admittedly, our aging society has been challenged and attacked by the virus. And this forces us to rethink our model of the welfare state towards a model of society that truly cares for the people who comprise it.
It is urgent to move from a market economy to a care economy. If this pandemic has taught us anything, it is that as a society we are extremely fragile
Care societies must be based on an economic model that places economic activities directed towards that end at the center of it. It would be necessary to consider why it is said that the economies of developed countries have entered into crisis based on the fact that we are currently consuming only essential basic goods.
It is evident that confinement extremely reduces our possibilities of socializing through recreational and cultural activities, this supposing a great cut in our economic flow. But that we only consume certain goods right now does not mean that we no longer need others, also essential: care goods, especially in the midst of this pandemic.
We have a great lack in our society of care of all kinds. I would even have to reconfigure the very concept of careBecause some of them -due to the economistic perspective that presides over all health and wellness treatment- are considered as a minimum coverage only.
This approach must change and should no longer be considered an expense from healthcare in general up to the own attention to specific needy groups. They are investments that our society needs and it demands to maintain the balance and well-being of our population.
This crisis has clearly exposed this need and perhaps for this reason it is now very difficult to understand why Western countries (all with the sole exception of Germany) had abandoned the production of goods in the sphere of care that are now, not essential. , vital, in light of what happened.
Health care should no longer be considered an expense. They are investments that our society needs
The supposed advantage of global trade, which made all now essential goods (tests, respirators, masks, etc.) an import, has not been such, but rather a great trap. Now, unfortunately, we can see what the consequences of these decisions are, anchored so far back in our outdated production model that it would be impossible to determine precisely when they go back. Now they have been revealed as really useless and harmful economic policies.
In light of this new paradigm of the care economy, new industrial activities should be illuminated and defined that, due to their essential nature for the well-being of the country, they could not be relocated, reducing the importation of these goods to a minimum. And, above all, taking care of their quality. This new directive of industrial policy directed to essential activities must be accompanied by a boost from public services.
New public policies to reinforce depleted public services and lacking investment. This seems like a no-brainer when we now talk about healing, due to the titanic effort we are seeing in prime time of our and our professionals during this crisis to overcome very limited resources as a consequence of the budget balance and cut policies developed during the last crisis by the Popular Party.
Less obvious it is if we talk about the rest of public services, but all of them have been shown to be indispensable. In this crisis, many and many have suddenly realized that there are Public Employment ServicesAnd that, although they have been cut down in staff and endowed with unsuspected limits, their professionals are working fourteen hours a day, like the health workers, to wage the battle against the virus in our country.
Health professionals saving lives, the workers of the Public Employment Services supporting the economy, employment and income level of families in our country. And I could go on with the list: home care, nursing homes, police, social services of all kinds, etc.
These changes towards a care economy / society (for people), however, cannot be implemented by each country individually, they must be coordinated and directed from Europe. Not in vain Europe stands as the cradle and reserve of the current model of the welfare state. Now is the time for Europe to advance in this construction, reinforcing and improving a model that has been put in check by this crisis. At stake is the future of Europe itself and of the welfare state model.
Now is the time for Europe to advance in this construction, reinforcing and improving a model that has been put in check
Finally, this new paradigm of economy should be accompanied by a new consumption model. One that did not rely on “useless consumption”, whose abandonment now seems to have caused the budding economic crisis.
An image is worth a thousand words and in the not too distant future perhaps the “provision of services” that are announced in the sales panels of real estate developments, will refer to the number of medicalized proximity beds, to public residences for the elderly in the area, home help units, etc. That has to be the new concept of “useful wealth”.
How useless is a Jaguar in the garage of a large mansion, when health and life are at stake. And it is that, definitely, in the face of life or death, we all have the same poverty threshold and if there is any possible wealth at that time, in this crisis we have verified that this could only come from our public services.
*** Mari Carmen Barrera She is the Secretary of Employment, Social Policies and Social Security at UGT.
