As millions worldwide face hunger and poverty as a result of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, French Economist Thomas Piketty talks about how this crisis has exposed the violence of social inequality. Tara Pilkington takes a deeper look at what this means.
The current coronavirus pandemic has had a devastating impact on the most vulnerable in our society, but can we use this crisis as a catalyst for change? French economist Thomas Piketty, whose new book ‘Capital and Ideology’ has been described as a manifesto for political change, spoke to Democracy Now about the lasting impact of COVID-19 what could be done to ameliorate this.
Discussing how coronavirus could trigger a recession across the globe, Piketty said: “This kind of crisis, very often in history, has a potential to change dominant views about what we should do about the economy, how we should organize our societies, the level of inequality.
He added: “The first visible impact of the crisis is that we see the violence of social inequality. So, you know, people are not equal with respect to lockdowns. They are not equal with respect to joblessness, income loss. So, you know, you can see people who have a very small home or people who have no home, who are homeless, are in a very different situation than people who are locked down in their nice apartment or nice house.
Discussing how we should move forward once we are able to move past coronavirus, Piketty said: “We also need to start thinking about a different kind of recovery. We cannot just go business as usual with the same economic sectors again. I think it’s an opportunity to rethink about a different kind of recovery, you know, more green, more social and trying to reach a more equitable and more sustainable development model, because this is something we’ve been discussing for a long time, especially since the 2008 financial crisis. And I think, with the financing of this crisis, we are going to have to change our view about what’s a proper level of inequality in a society.”
- Purchase ‘Capital and Ideology’ here
