Covid 19 and Actual Capitalism

We are living in THE capitalist moment. What I mean by this is that we are living in the midst of a stunning revelation of the nature and logic of the institutions that govern us. This revelation is clearest of course in the United States becasue that great nation does nothing by halfs and is not constrained by the virtuous mediocrity that confines Canadians to nibbling around the edges of problems rather than attacking the gordian knot. In that nation both Democrats and Republicans have agreed that in a crisis such as a war or a pandemic the number one priority is maintaining the discipline of workers. The solution to this has been brilliant: bail out corporations and give crumbs to workers. This means that in order to access any real benefit the worker must return to work in the hopes that SOME of the multi-trillion dollar bailout will trickle down to her. It does not matter how safe she feels: when the boss wants work to resume the client must go or face destitution. Had there been any significant bailout of WORKERS this would have been an existential threat to the client/patron relationship that I have elsewhere described as part of the core structure of capitalism. If the client has options the boss has no power and it is government's job to 'get out of the way' because the threat from government is that it might become a rival boss. Workers are not rioting in the streets, and will not be rioting in the streets over corporate welfare bailouts because they are resigned to this bargain. They know there is 'no such thing as society' (to quote Mrs. Thatcher) and that corporations cannot fail because there is nothing that right wing/centrist governments are willing to put in their place. They know that government and institutions have been shredded all around them and are for that very reason not interested in pleas to 'trust the government' or 'believe in science' or 'accept the facts'. They know the REAL message is 'depend on your boss' for we are not helping you, not with health care, not with anything. In fact we will cut funding for the CDC and close rural hospitals just so you get the point. Workers are smart enough to get the real message not the fake one. Thus when Betsy De Vos cuts me a cheque I bloody well turn up to protest social distancing. In fact I will do this even without being cut a cheque becasue I understand the nature of the system I live under better than the journalists and professors who hector me. I understand that the system I live under is in essence totalitarian whether in the fascist iteration of Trumpism (which at least gives me an opportunity to vent my spleen) or the technocratic version of Biden and Pelosi. This system is totalitarian becasue the individual is inessential to it. The individual worker is accident not essence. Even more so are dependents in places like prisons and nursing homes who are being exhorted to die lest economic growth slows down.The system as a totality embodies a god-like essence to which persons are strictly subordinate (ie. the market knows everything, can do everything, is the source of all good, is all powerful etc.). Bosses understand this and that is why they are upset and baffled at being forced to protect the lives of expendable workers. The system is set up so that any worker who dies will be replaced quickly by  another one who cannot acess reasonable levels of health care (for instance) in any other way. Why, the bosses reasonably ask, is the system not being allowed to operate by its own inherent logic? Workers ask the same thing becasue they know that this is the set up and they will pay the price to feed their children and hope lightning strikes the next fellow not them. My prediction is that they will win this argument as the POTUS is already fretting about his golf courses and has failed in his bid to profiteer on behalf of the drug comapanies he owns stock in. Canada will, of course, find a politer, nicer way of doing the same thing.