The Covid-19 pandemic interrupted the usual functioning of the national economy with shocking speed and violence. Now, as states around the country move to “reopen”—in most cases far earlier and faster than is safe—and politicians hold forth about how best to restart economic activity, it seems imperative to consider the nature of the economy getting restarted. Do we really want to go back to the pre-pandemic status quo? How can we remake the system so it works better for everyone?
For Episode 7, The Politics of Everything assembled an ad hoc council to address these questions, asking six guests to offer their best and least expected ideas for reform: Dean Baker, a senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research; Jason Linkins and Katie McDonough, deputy editors at TNR; Libby Watson, a TNR staff writer; and TNR contributors Aaron Timms and Liza Featherstone.
Further Reading:
• Though the devastation left by the coronavirus is vast, the crisis also reveals something hopeful, Liza Featherstone observes in “The Pandemic Is a Family Emergency”: “Workers and governments can adapt nimbly and humanely to serve the pressing needs of children and of our whole society, and … our ideas about the proper role of the state can change, too.”