theintercept--2020-04-29--First the Muslim Ban, Now Coronavirus — Iranian Families Separated by One Trump Order After Another

an extraordinarily tight-knit Iranian family .
Forty-year-old Amin , the eldest of five brothers , first arrived in California in 2003 , and was followed slowly but surely by his parents and siblings .
All of them , that is , except for Masoud , who for a decade now has been trying to join the rest of his family in the United States .
The situation had been looking hopeful , until the global coronavirus pandemic and a couple strokes of the U.S. president ’ s pen blew it all up .
With new immigration restrictions just announced by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the coronavirus , the family now find themselves facing ever-mounting hurdles to their simple goal of being all together again .
“ I don ’ t know what should I do .
Because when you don ’ t know when you can go completely from one country to another country , you can not plan for your life , ” said Masoud from isolation in Iran , the site of one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in the Middle East .
Masoud and his father are part of a lawsuit challenging Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ when he took office and amended until it was upheld by the Supreme Court in June 2018 .
It barred , to different extents , people from Iran , Libya , North Korea , Somalia , Syria , Yemen , Venezuela , and Chad from visiting or immigrating to the U.S .
The suit challenges the waiver process , which in theory allows people to circumvent the ban but in practice is often incomprehensible and inconsistent .
From an original group of 25 , plaintiffs have melted away as their waivers have been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ leaving only three families , including the Shamelis .
“ Every time somebody got it , we were hopeful that , OK , next round is our turn , ” said Ehsan , the second oldest brother .
Watching the dwindling group gave the family hope that Masoud could soon be next , even as the agony of waiting continued .
Those hopes took a hit as the health crisis shut down travel and the operations of U.S. consulates abroad .
At the end of February , Trump signed a proclamation specifically barring @ @ @ @ @ @ @ days in Iran from traveling to the United States , with a few exceptions that did not apply to Masoud .
Then , last week , Trump issued another proclamation , this time generally suspending immigrant visas for people outside the United States .
The order is framed as a way to address the “ risk to the labor U.S. labor market ” that has resulted from the pandemic ’ s hit to the economy .
Again , Masoud did not qualify for any of the exceptions the White House allowed .
These @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tomorrow Masoud is issued a waiver under the travel ban , or wins his legal case challenging it , the other two presidential orders will block him from receiving an immigrant visa or traveling to the United States .
And that ’ s setting aside the difficulty of leaving Iran in the first place .
“ They have the [ original ] travel ban .
They have the actual borders closed between Turkey and Iran .
They have the Covid-19 ban that came out last month .
And now they have this one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” said Curtis Morrison , an attorney representing the family in the federal case .
Masoud is left in limbo .
“ He wanted to do a Ph.D. in Iran , ” said Reza , his father .
“ But he said , ‘ Perhaps tomorrow I will come to the United States and I prefer to continue my education there .
Or we insisted to him to get married .
And he said , ‘ If I want to come to the United States , what happens to my wife ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ good an example as you can find of the United States ’ complex and multifaceted immigration system .
Two of the brothers , Amin and Ashkan , went the employment immigration route , getting visas through their jobs ; parents Reza and Zahra won the diversity visa lottery , bringing with them Ali , the youngest of the sons at 28 ; and Ehsan came through family reunification via his wife , whom he met while traveling on business to California .
Masoud is being sponsored by his father for a family visa @ @ @ @ @ @ @ resemblance to each other and to their father .
All have technical degrees in science or engineering .
The only difference between Masoud , a civil engineer , and the six members of his nuclear family who have made it to California appears to be bad timing .
“ If this proclamation was not in place , he would have been here for more than a year now , ” said Ehsan , referring to the original travel ban .
The urgency to have Masoud join them stateside isn ’ t just sentimental @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fear of an escalation of tensions between the U.S. and Iran .
Reza specifically mentioned Trump ’ s recent remarks about firing on Iranian boats .
Ehsan said his father had started taking antidepressants after a recent skirmish between U.S. and Iranian sailors .
There ’ s also the ever-present specter of the pandemic .
“ In this lockdown , I ’ m completely at home alone .
… If something happened , there is no one here to help me , you know ?
” said Masoud .
technically only lasts for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ extended .
Unlike prior travel bans that were framed around national security and public health , this one explicitly ties itself to labor , claiming to protect jobless Americans , which is probably a signifier that the White House ’ s immigration restrictionists — in particular , Trump adviser Stephen Miller — will try to make it permanent .
Miller said in a call with conservative supporters this week that the order was a step in the process “ to turn off the faucet of new immigrant labor.
” “ Mission accomplished , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ restrictions on temporary guest workers — excluded from this order after outcry from business groups — were still a priority .
Indeed , the order includes a section titled “ additional measures ” that leaves the door open for expanded restrictions .
The latest proclamation doesn ’ t include any kind of waiver process .
Asked if there were any provisions for applicants to override the ban , a State Department spokesperson reiterated the exemptions already set forth in the order .
Kia Nasseri , another plaintiff in the travel ban case , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , when Trump tweeted that he ’ d be signing an executive order “ to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States !
” Nasseri is a U.S. citizen married to an Iranian woman whose daughter , now 19 , fled her abusive father in Iran about three years ago .
Nasseri has been trying to bring his stepdaughter to the U.S. , but his efforts were thwarted by the travel ban .
She has passed through Turkey , Armenia , Ecuador , and Georgia , running out tourist visas while waiting for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ankara , Turkey , where she overstayed her visa because the pandemic prevented her from leaving .
To make matters worse , Nasseri ’ s wife went to visit her , and is now also stuck .
At the moment , it ’ s Turkish , not American , travel restrictions leaving his wife stranded ; permanent residents like her are exempt from Trump ’ s new order .
So are children under 21 with U.S. citizen parents , like his stepdaughter , though she is still blocked by the original travel ban @ @ @ @ @ @ @ newest could be amended or expanded , putting even more obstacles in his family ’ s path .
“ She ’ s not studying , she ’ s basically wasting her life , ” said Nasseri of his daughter .
He has had three surgeries that have decreased his lung function , and he has high blood pressure .
“ If I catch coronavirus , there ’ s a big possibility I ’ m going to pass .
So I ’ m going to pass without seeing my daughter .
And if they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to take the first plane there to take care of them , and I ’ m going to risk my life for them , ” he said .
“ All I want is an answer , a yes or no answer .
If it ’ s a no , that ’ s fine with me .
I ’ ll just retire and cash out everything I have and move to another country and take my family with me .
”

The Shamelis are an extraordinarily tight-knit Iranian family. Forty-year-old Amin, the eldest of five brothers, first arrived in California in 2003, and was followed slowly but surely by his parents and siblings. All of them, that is, except for Masoud, who for a decade now has been trying to join the rest of his family in the United States. The situation had been looking hopeful, until the global coronavirus pandemic and a couple strokes of the U.S. president’s pen blew it all up.
With new immigration restrictions just announced by Donald Trump in response to the spread of the coronavirus, the family now find themselves facing ever-mounting hurdles to their simple goal of being all together again.
“I don’t know what should I do. Because when you don’t know when you can go completely from one country to another country, you cannot plan for your life,” said Masoud from isolation in Iran, the site of one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in the Middle East.
Masoud and his father are part of a lawsuit challenging Trump’s travel ban — famously enacted when he took office and amended until it was upheld by the Supreme Court in June 2018. It barred, to different extents, people from Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, Venezuela, and Chad from visiting or immigrating to the U.S. The suit challenges the waiver process, which in theory allows people to circumvent the ban but in practice is often incomprehensible and inconsistent. From an original group of 25, plaintiffs have melted away as their waivers have been belatedly granted while litigation drags on, leaving only three families, including the Shamelis.
“Every time somebody got it, we were hopeful that, OK, next round is our turn,” said Ehsan, the second oldest brother. Watching the dwindling group gave the family hope that Masoud could soon be next, even as the agony of waiting continued.
“They have the travel ban. They have the actual borders closed between Turkey and Iran. They have the Covid-19 ban that came out last month. And now they have this one.”
Those hopes took a hit as the health crisis shut down travel and the operations of U.S. consulates abroad. At the end of February, Trump signed a proclamation specifically barring people who had spent the prior 14 days in Iran from traveling to the United States, with a few exceptions that did not apply to Masoud.
Then, last week, Trump issued another proclamation, this time generally suspending immigrant visas for people outside the United States. The order is framed as a way to address the “risk to the labor U.S. labor market” that has resulted from the pandemic’s hit to the economy. Again, Masoud did not qualify for any of the exceptions the White House allowed.
These cascading legal obstacles mean that even if tomorrow Masoud is issued a waiver under the travel ban, or wins his legal case challenging it, the other two presidential orders will block him from receiving an immigrant visa or traveling to the United States. And that’s setting aside the difficulty of leaving Iran in the first place.
“They have the [original] travel ban. They have the actual borders closed between Turkey and Iran. They have the Covid-19 ban that came out last month. And now they have this one. So this is a fourth barrier,” said Curtis Morrison, an attorney representing the family in the federal case.
Read Our Complete Coverage The Coronavirus Crisis
Masoud is left in limbo. “He wanted to do a Ph.D. in Iran,” said Reza, his father. “But he said, ‘Perhaps tomorrow I will come to the United States and I prefer to continue my education there. Or we insisted to him to get married. And he said, ‘If I want to come to the United States, what happens to my wife?’”
Photo: Courtesy of Shameli family
The family is about as good an example as you can find of the United States’ complex and multifaceted immigration system. Two of the brothers, Amin and Ashkan, went the employment immigration route, getting visas through their jobs; parents Reza and Zahra won the diversity visa lottery, bringing with them Ali, the youngest of the sons at 28; and Ehsan came through family reunification via his wife, whom he met while traveling on business to California. Masoud is being sponsored by his father for a family visa.
“In this lockdown, I’m completely at home alone. … If something happened, there is no one here to help me.”
The five brothers bear a strong resemblance to each other and to their father. All have technical degrees in science or engineering. The only difference between Masoud, a civil engineer, and the six members of his nuclear family who have made it to California appears to be bad timing. “If this proclamation was not in place, he would have been here for more than a year now,” said Ehsan, referring to the original travel ban.
The urgency to have Masoud join them stateside isn’t just sentimental in nature. The family lives in fear of an escalation of tensions between the U.S. and Iran. Reza specifically mentioned Trump’s recent remarks about firing on Iranian boats. Ehsan said his father had started taking antidepressants after a recent skirmish between U.S. and Iranian sailors. There’s also the ever-present specter of the pandemic. “In this lockdown, I’m completely at home alone. … If something happened, there is no one here to help me, you know?” said Masoud.
Trump’s latest order technically only lasts for 60 days, but it could be extended. Unlike prior travel bans that were framed around national security and public health, this one explicitly ties itself to labor, claiming to protect jobless Americans, which is probably a signifier that the White House’s immigration restrictionists — in particular, Trump adviser Stephen Miller — will try to make it permanent. Miller said in a call with conservative supporters this week that the order was a step in the process “to turn off the faucet of new immigrant labor.”
“Mission accomplished,” he said, adding that additional restrictions on temporary guest workers — excluded from this order after outcry from business groups — were still a priority. Indeed, the order includes a section titled “additional measures” that leaves the door open for expanded restrictions.
The latest proclamation doesn’t include any kind of waiver process. Asked if there were any provisions for applicants to override the ban, a State Department spokesperson reiterated the exemptions already set forth in the order.
Share Your Coronavirus Story Click here to learn about contacting a reporter securely, or email us at coronavirus@theintercept.com
Kia Nasseri, another plaintiff in the travel ban case, didn’t sleep last Monday night, when Trump tweeted that he’d be signing an executive order “to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!” Nasseri is a U.S. citizen married to an Iranian woman whose daughter, now 19, fled her abusive father in Iran about three years ago. Nasseri has been trying to bring his stepdaughter to the U.S., but his efforts were thwarted by the travel ban. She has passed through Turkey, Armenia, Ecuador, and Georgia, running out tourist visas while waiting for a resolution.
She is now in Ankara, Turkey, where she overstayed her visa because the pandemic prevented her from leaving. To make matters worse, Nasseri’s wife went to visit her, and is now also stuck. At the moment, it’s Turkish, not American, travel restrictions leaving his wife stranded; permanent residents like her are exempt from Trump’s new order. So are children under 21 with U.S. citizen parents, like his stepdaughter, though she is still blocked by the original travel ban. Nasseri fears that Trump’s newest could be amended or expanded, putting even more obstacles in his family’s path.
“She’s not studying, she’s basically wasting her life,” said Nasseri of his daughter. He has had three surgeries that have decreased his lung function, and he has high blood pressure. “If I catch coronavirus, there’s a big possibility I’m going to pass. So I’m going to pass without seeing my daughter. And if they get it, I’m going to take the first plane there to take care of them, and I’m going to risk my life for them,” he said. “All I want is an answer, a yes or no answer. If it’s a no, that’s fine with me. I’ll just retire and cash out everything I have and move to another country and take my family with me.”


theintercept--2020-04-29--The Corporate Right Is Giving Us Two Choices: Go Back to Work, or Starve

The GOP and its core constituents — conservative corporations — now face two dangers , one in the short term and one in the longer term .
They ’ re currently using their standard playbook to smother both .
Whether they succeed will determine our lives for decades .
The short-term danger is that Americans will resist the push from business to get us back on the job and making money for them .
Their plan is simple : Starve us out .
They know we can ’ t survive indefinitely without a continuing government bailout focused on regular people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ re going to stop that bailout from happening .
The longer-term danger they face is that we ’ ll make the government work for us in the short term — and then we will realize we could make it work for us all the time by removing the threat of starvation from their arsenal .
This would totally change the balance of power in society .
This is their deepest fear , one that ’ s consumed them since World War II , the first time in history that everyday people gained consciousness @ @ @ @ @ @ @ use the government to create a world that puts them first , not their bosses .
In the short term , they will just say that America is now , sadly , out of money .
At a recent press conference , Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell , R-Ky. , still metaphorically drenched from the firehose of cash he sprayed all over Wall Street and big American business during the past month , looked mournful .
Money for state and local governments so they ’ re not forced to lay off massive numbers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for doctors and nurses ?
Help for people paying rent ?
Sorry , no .
“ Until we can begin to open up the economy , ” McConnell said , “ we can ’ t spend enough money to solve the problem.
” The same thinking prevails in the Trump administration , particularly about money for state and local governments .
The strategy is already bearing fruit , with states such as Florida , Georgia , Texas and Tennessee easing restrictions on business — all to the approval of various presidential tweets .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , watch this local news helicopter footage of hundreds of people in Rockville , Maryland — just outside of Washington , D.C. — close together in line for free food being given out by a Megamart Supermarket .
The station ’ s correspondent said that “ in this whole plan , of what we do for people during this pandemic … these are perhaps people who are not seen.
” But this is wrong .
America ’ s corporate right absolutely sees these people .
Like any competent group of thieves robbing a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hostages .
Anyone who knows the Washington , D.C. , area would find the supermarket scene nauseating , shocking , and completely predictable , all at the same time .
Rockville is in Maryland ’ s Montgomery County , one of the richest counties in the United States , with a median income of about $ 100,000 .
Georgetown Prep , the private school attended by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh — current day student tuition $ 38,330 — is a modest stroll from this particular Megamart .
The headquarters of Lockheed Martin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ million in 2018 and gets 70 percent of its revenue from the federal government — is a 10-minute drive away .
Then if you need a new ride , you ’ re not far from Bethesda Euromotors , where you can pick up a Mercedes SUV for $ 170,000 .
The people who actually make the lives of Montgomery County ’ s aristocrats run are generally invisible to the aristocrats themselves .
But here , many were suddenly in one place : visible and desperate .
The county ’ s princelings and princesses @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who truly control the United States .
They unquestionably have the power to end the desperation .
They just won ’ t .
Why ?
It ’ s easy to conclude they simply don ’ t care whether workers live or die ; certainly President Trump ’ s demand that meat processing plants stay open even as the people inside them get sick makes that as clear as anything could .
But it ’ s more complex than that , and in fact more dreadful .
There are two paths forward during this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the science about the novel coronavirus , as complicated and incomplete as it is .
This would necessitate putting much of the economy in hibernation until we have the capacity to immediately find anyone with Covid-19 and provide them with a safe place to stay in quarantine , while doing our best to keep everyone who has to work safe .
For regular people to survive , we would need government action along the lines of that proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders , I-Vt. , and Rep. Pramila Jayapal , D-Wash. : guaranteeing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cash payments to everyone , Medicare covering all health costs .
Alternately , we can follow the heart ’ s desire of the corporate right , and shove everyone back to work as soon as possible .
The problem for the corporate right is that the force-everyone-to-risk-death concept is unpopular .
Recent polls show overwhelming support for the continuation of shelter-in-place policies until public health officials say it ’ s safe to lift them .
This could easily change , however , as the Rockville scenes make clear .
A $ 1,200 stimulus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ month of the median U.S. rent for a two-bedroom apartment .
GOP governors are already maneuvering to make it difficult for constituents scared that their job might kill them to access the expanded unemployment benefits of the CARES Act .
What we can expect to see on the right is ever-more ostentatious wailing and rending of garments about the suffering of the jobless .
Jeanine Pirro has already explained on Fox that “ for every percentage of increase in unemployment , there is an increase in deaths from suicide , alcoholism , domestic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ depression.
” USA Today columnist Glenn Harlan Reynolds wrote about the “ class divide here … between the people in the political/managerial class on the one hand and the people in the working class on the other.
” This weepy concern for the unemployed will be bogus , but the suffering will be absolutely real , because the right will make sure it is .
The corporate right ’ s hoped-for dynamic recently was explained explicitly by Trevor Burrus of the Cato Institute , a conservative D.C. think tank : “ The economic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and it ’ s only getting worse .
… Many will hit a point where the trade-off will be between possibly getting COVID-19 and being able to feed their families .
The disease doesn ’ t look so bad then.
” There it is : The choice being given to regular Americans will be to work or die .
In Adam Smith ’ s “ The Wealth of Nations , ” probably the most famous book ever written about economics , Smith explains that the “ masters of mankind ” ( rich @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this is the choice available for most people .
When workers fight back against the masters for more pay or better conditions , their efforts “ generally end in nothing , but the punishment or ruin of the ringleaders.
” Much of this is due to “ the necessity which the greater part of the workmen are under of submitting for the sake of present subsistence.
” That is , working people just can ’ t withdraw their labor for long , or they ’ ll go hungry .
The problem , from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is not just that business would lose its cudgel for the moment if the U.S. government pays people to stay home .
( To understand why we can afford it at unusual times like this , read about Modern Monetary Theory , which is often condemned as a radical heresy but is in fact just a straightforward description of reality . )
The deeper long-term peril , from the perspective of Wall Street and big business , is that normal Americans will realize they can use the government to eliminate the “ necessity @ @ @ @ @ @ @ thereby permanently alter who holds power in U.S. society .
This was famously explained in a 1943 essay by Michal Kalecki , a Polish economist , titled “ Political Aspects of Full Employment.
” At that moment , World War II was demonstrating for everyone with eyes to see that governments could end depressions and create economic booms via the straightforward method of spending money on basic human needs .
There was no technical reason this couldn ’ t continue after the war , Kalecki wrote .
But there was a huge political @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could live without fear of unemployment would mean employers would no longer hold the whip hand .
As Kalecki put it , in a standard capitalist economy , the level of employment depends on the “ confidence ” of employers , and hence they must be catered to constantly .
However , “ once the government learns the trick of increasing employment by its own purchases , this powerful controlling device loses its effectiveness .
Hence budget deficits necessary to carry out government intervention must be regarded as perilous.
” Kalecki ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more about power than money .
“ It is true that profits would be higher under a regime of full employment than they are on average under laissez-faire , ” he said , “ but ‘ discipline in the factories ’ and ‘ political stability ’ are more appreciated than profits by business leaders .
Their class instinct tells them that lasting full employment is unsound from their point of view.
” This perspective — that governmental power was enormous and could be used for the many rather than the few — was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But it was forgotten over the next few decades , because powerful people wanted it forgotten .
At various points , it ’ s been rediscovered , as by the civil rights movement during the 1970s .
What we need now is slightly different than what Kalecki described : “ full employment ” with many people essentially “ working ” at not getting sick or infecting others .
But the principle is the same , as is the terror that this possibility elicits on the right .
They will do everything possible to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all of their purported rules for as long as it took for them to unlock the U.S. Treasury and help themselves to trillions of dollars .
Now , with that accomplished , Republicans and the corporate right will pretend it never happened , suddenly reimpose the “ rules , ” and fight to the death against any genuine bailout for regular people .
This will be the case even if such a bailout would probably be more profitable for business than a shambolic , disastrous reopening of the economy .
From the point @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , it ’ s worth any number of dead Americans to stop us from asking : If we can use the power of the government on a huge scale in a crisis like this , what else can we do ?

Photo: David Dee Delgado/Getty Images
The GOP and its core constituents — conservative corporations — now face two dangers, one in the short term and one in the longer term. They’re currently using their standard playbook to smother both. Whether they succeed will determine our lives for decades.
The short-term danger is that Americans will resist the push from business to get us back on the job and making money for them. Their plan is simple: Starve us out. They know we can’t survive indefinitely without a continuing government bailout focused on regular people’s needs. So they’re going to stop that bailout from happening.
The longer-term danger they face is that we’ll make the government work for us in the short term — and then we will realize we could make it work for us all the time by removing the threat of starvation from their arsenal. This would totally change the balance of power in society. This is their deepest fear, one that’s consumed them since World War II, the first time in history that everyday people gained consciousness that it was possible for them to use the government to create a world that puts them first, not their bosses.
Read Our Complete Coverage The Coronavirus Crisis
In the short term, they will just say that America is now, sadly, out of money. At a recent press conference, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., still metaphorically drenched from the firehose of cash he sprayed all over Wall Street and big American business during the past month, looked mournful. Money for state and local governments so they’re not forced to lay off massive numbers of teacher and firefighters? Hazard pay for doctors and nurses? Help for people paying rent? Sorry, no. “Until we can begin to open up the economy,” McConnell said, “we can’t spend enough money to solve the problem.” The same thinking prevails in the Trump administration, particularly about money for state and local governments.
The strategy is already bearing fruit, with states such as Florida, Georgia, Texas and Tennessee easing restrictions on business — all to the approval of various presidential tweets.
To understand the depths of this depravity, watch this local news helicopter footage of hundreds of people in Rockville, Maryland — just outside of Washington, D.C. — close together in line for free food being given out by a Megamart Supermarket. The station’s correspondent said that “in this whole plan, of what we do for people during this pandemic … these are perhaps people who are not seen.”
But this is wrong. America’s corporate right absolutely sees these people. Like any competent group of thieves robbing a bank, they see the vulnerable as hostages.
Chilling footage from Maryland, US where hundreds are lined up to get a free bag of food or $30 voucher from store. Lines wrapping around parking lot and building itself, show extent of desperation: pic.twitter.com/o1fppWHvA4 — Joyce Karam (@Joyce_Karam) April 17, 2020
Anyone who knows the Washington, D.C., area would find the supermarket scene nauseating, shocking, and completely predictable, all at the same time.
Rockville is in Maryland’s Montgomery County, one of the richest counties in the United States, with a median income of about $100,000. Georgetown Prep, the private school attended by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh — current day student tuition $38,330 — is a modest stroll from this particular Megamart. The headquarters of Lockheed Martin — which paid its CEO $21.5 million in 2018 and gets 70 percent of its revenue from the federal government — is a 10-minute drive away. Then if you need a new ride, you’re not far from Bethesda Euromotors, where you can pick up a Mercedes SUV for $170,000.
The people who actually make the lives of Montgomery County’s aristocrats run are generally invisible to the aristocrats themselves. But here, many were suddenly in one place: visible and desperate. The county’s princelings and princesses are a big chunk of the elites who truly control the United States. They unquestionably have the power to end the desperation. They just won’t.
Why? It’s easy to conclude they simply don’t care whether workers live or die; certainly President Trump’s demand that meat processing plants stay open even as the people inside them get sick makes that as clear as anything could. But it’s more complex than that, and in fact more dreadful.
There are two paths forward during this pandemic. The U.S. could rationally follow the science about the novel coronavirus, as complicated and incomplete as it is. This would necessitate putting much of the economy in hibernation until we have the capacity to immediately find anyone with Covid-19 and provide them with a safe place to stay in quarantine, while doing our best to keep everyone who has to work safe. For regular people to survive, we would need government action along the lines of that proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash.: guaranteeing no one goes hungry, direct emergency cash payments to everyone, Medicare covering all health costs.
Alternately, we can follow the heart’s desire of the corporate right, and shove everyone back to work as soon as possible.
The problem for the corporate right is that the force-everyone-to-risk-death concept is unpopular. Recent polls show overwhelming support for the continuation of shelter-in-place policies until public health officials say it’s safe to lift them.
This could easily change, however, as the Rockville scenes make clear. A $1,200 stimulus check will pay for less than one month of the median U.S. rent for a two-bedroom apartment. GOP governors are already maneuvering to make it difficult for constituents scared that their job might kill them to access the expanded unemployment benefits of the CARES Act.
What we can expect to see on the right is ever-more ostentatious wailing and rending of garments about the suffering of the jobless. Jeanine Pirro has already explained on Fox that “for every percentage of increase in unemployment, there is an increase in deaths from suicide, alcoholism, domestic violence, and a loss, and depression.” USA Today columnist Glenn Harlan Reynolds wrote about the “class divide here … between the people in the political/managerial class on the one hand and the people in the working class on the other.”
This weepy concern for the unemployed will be bogus, but the suffering will be absolutely real, because the right will make sure it is.
The corporate right’s hoped-for dynamic recently was explained explicitly by Trevor Burrus of the Cato Institute, a conservative D.C. think tank: “The economic and human devastation is difficult to contemplate, and it’s only getting worse. … Many will hit a point where the trade-off will be between possibly getting COVID-19 and being able to feed their families. The disease doesn’t look so bad then.”
There it is: The choice being given to regular Americans will be to work or die.
In Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations,” probably the most famous book ever written about economics, Smith explains that the “masters of mankind” (rich employers and financiers) always have known this is the choice available for most people. When workers fight back against the masters for more pay or better conditions, their efforts “generally end in nothing, but the punishment or ruin of the ringleaders.” Much of this is due to “the necessity which the greater part of the workmen are under of submitting for the sake of present subsistence.” That is, working people just can’t withdraw their labor for long, or they’ll go hungry.
The problem, from the corporate right’s perspective, is not just that business would lose its cudgel for the moment if the U.S. government pays people to stay home. (To understand why we can afford it at unusual times like this, read about Modern Monetary Theory, which is often condemned as a radical heresy but is in fact just a straightforward description of reality.) The deeper long-term peril, from the perspective of Wall Street and big business, is that normal Americans will realize they can use the government to eliminate the “necessity” of which Smith wrote — and thereby permanently alter who holds power in U.S. society.
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This was famously explained in a 1943 essay by Michal Kalecki, a Polish economist, titled “Political Aspects of Full Employment.” At that moment, World War II was demonstrating for everyone with eyes to see that governments could end depressions and create economic booms via the straightforward method of spending money on basic human needs. There was no technical reason this couldn’t continue after the war, Kalecki wrote. But there was a huge political problem: An economy in which people could live without fear of unemployment would mean employers would no longer hold the whip hand.
As Kalecki put it, in a standard capitalist economy, the level of employment depends on the “confidence” of employers, and hence they must be catered to constantly. However, “once the government learns the trick of increasing employment by its own purchases, this powerful controlling device loses its effectiveness. Hence budget deficits necessary to carry out government intervention must be regarded as perilous.”
Kalecki’s key insight was that big business cares more about power than money. “It is true that profits would be higher under a regime of full employment than they are on average under laissez-faire,” he said, “but ‘discipline in the factories’ and ‘political stability’ are more appreciated than profits by business leaders. Their class instinct tells them that lasting full employment is unsound from their point of view.”
This perspective — that governmental power was enormous and could be used for the many rather than the few — was obvious at the time in 1940s. But it was forgotten over the next few decades, because powerful people wanted it forgotten. At various points, it’s been rediscovered, as by the civil rights movement during the 1970s. What we need now is slightly different than what Kalecki described: “full employment” with many people essentially “working” at not getting sick or infecting others. But the principle is the same, as is the terror that this possibility elicits on the right. They will do everything possible to make sure we forgot they just suspended all of their purported rules for as long as it took for them to unlock the U.S. Treasury and help themselves to trillions of dollars.
Now, with that accomplished, Republicans and the corporate right will pretend it never happened, suddenly reimpose the “rules,” and fight to the death against any genuine bailout for regular people. This will be the case even if such a bailout would probably be more profitable for business than a shambolic, disastrous reopening of the economy. From the point of view of the masters of humankind, it’s worth any number of dead Americans to stop us from asking: If we can use the power of the government on a huge scale in a crisis like this, what else can we do?