No, We Are Not "All in This Together"

COVID-19 is dominating media headlines, advertisements, daily conversations, and websites all feature news & updates regarding the novel coronavirus that has swept through the world.  One of the more tiring aspects of daily life during this pandemic are the advertisements that mention COVID-19 buzzwords at nausea.

It is nearly impossible to watch a TV show that doesn’t reference the virus, followed by ads from companies like Doritos, or Kit-Kat, or Amazon, assuring us that they care about our safety as they subject us to overplayed cheesy music and affirmations that we are “all in this together.”

Despite corporate-America’s pledges & promises (or propaganda?), are we truly united?  If the virus has achieved anything, it has expertly demonstrated America’s far-reaching economic inequalities as some segments of our society is profiting greatly while others are struggling to cope with the reality laying ahead of them.

In only 23 days, between March 18^th and April 10^th, 170 of America’s billionaires added $282 billion dollars to their wealth, an increase of 9.5%. Amazon’s founder alone increased his net worth by 25 billion dollars in 2020.  In the same period over 22 million Americans filed for unemployment.  Totaled to now, more than 36 million or 1/5^th of our nation’s workforce have reported being jobless.  Some estimates state the total unemployment rate will approach 30 percent; a benchmark not seen since the Great Depression.  Similarly to the Great Depression, we are seeing thousands of cars lining up around the nation seeking food aid and surveys have revealed that in April 1/5^th of all households and 40 percent of households containing children under the age of 12 lacked sufficient food.

Nobel Prize winning economist has likened the U.S. to a “Third World Country.”  While other journalists and experts lament America as a ‘failed state’.

Divisions are continuing to grow within our country and will only continue to do so as the government places restrictions on ordinary citizen’s daily routines, while simultaneously failing to provide adequate relief.  The 2.2 trillion-dollar CARES Act makes for a great headline, however only a tiny portion of the funds go to working-class citizens and will not be enough to offset their lost incomes.  The Paycheck Protection Program has mastodonically misallocated its financial resources.  340 billion meant for small business to keep workers on payroll, yet business owners were unable to navigate crashed websites and red-tape as massive businesses such as the Penske Automotive Group & AutoNation and publicly traded hotel conglomerates such as Ashford & Braemar Hotels found loopholes to receive millions of dollars in assistance while still letting go the bulk of their employees.

Even more egregious, private equity firms sitting on $1.5 trillion in capital received tens of millions from the PPP.

While billionaires have added billions, large corporations have snatched up resources meant for Main Street, regular business owners have been forced to shutter their doors for rapidly changing reasons. 

Despite all of this when you turn on the television you can be treated to stock footage of happy diverse couples enjoying a bag of Oreos as you are promised, pledged and pandered to about the resiliency and togetherness of humanity.  Yes, it appears the death of The American Dream has a soundtrack and it is kitschy, over-played acoustic nonsense focus-group designed to be non-offensive and elicit feelings of security.

Take control of your own destiny and do not rely on the humanity of corporations or the effectiveness of a bloated government.  We are not in this together… yet we could be by choosing not to listen to those that say we are. We can stop succumbing to the fearmongering and support each other in our own communities. 

DeliveryMaxx is a small business that takes pride in helping other small businesses succeed in an increasingly digital world.  That was our mission prior to this outbreak which has now shown it is more important than ever.  If you need help navigating a transition to becoming more active on social media, building an e-commerce website, or post-sale communication with your clients we are here to help.  Visit www.deliverymaxx.com or give us a call at 888-936-6299 today.