How Covid-19 finally killed neoliberalism

Patrick Westöö
7 min readJul 30, 2020

On the eve of the American election, the french ambassador to Washington tweeted in a since deleted tweet, “a world is collapsing before our eyes”. He later followed up in an interview in the Atlantic with the following “…From Reagan to Trump you have, more or less, the neoliberal era — taxes were bad, borders were bad, and you have to trust the market…”, “…but for me means that this period is over”

If Brexit and Trump was the signaling shot of the end of neoliberalism, Covid-19 is the practical proof. Government is actually quite useful and the countries that have spent the last 40 years claiming that government is not important are also failing spectacularly in their efforts to contain the virus, especially considering their wealth and history of success, yes I am talking about the UK and the US. We are seeing the success and organization of Germany and Asia (countries that have developed incredibly fast) compared to the chaotic and lackluster attempt of the UK and US. The US system is particularly vulnerable for this type of pandemic. Most US workers have no sick leave, and reputable companies like amazon are only giving workers 14 days off if and only if they confirm that they have coronavirus. Most workers live hand to mouth and 60% of Americans cannot afford an unexpected expense of 400 USD. Yet governments are lining the pockets of wealthy corporations furthering…

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