What is COVID capitalism?. Issue 2 (2nd September 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Nail, Thomas
• Is Part Of: Distinktion. Volume 23:Issue 2/3(2022)
• Page Start: 327
• Page End: 341
• Publication Date: 2022-09-02
• Subjects: Capitalism -- COVID -- COVID capitalism -- climate -- migration -- inequality -- politics; Social sciences -- Periodicals; Social sciences -- Philosophy -- Periodicals; Social history -- Periodicals; 300
• DOI: 10.1080/1600910X.2022.2075905
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1600-910X

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The term 'COVID capitalism' designates the ways capitalism and the novel coronavirus alter and amplify one another. In this paper, I look at four major features that characterize this relationship so far. (1) Capitalist extraction and urbanization increase exposure to new viruses. (2) Capitalism increases the spread of infectious disease. (3) COVID amplifies inequalities that benefit capitalists. (4) COVID has led to profits, bailouts, and deregulation for capitalists. The increasing frequency of COVID and other pandemics not only amplifies existing capitalist structures but feeds back into those structures and becomes an advantage to capitalism. I argue here that COVID is not a threat to capitalism but rather a mutagen altering and magnifying it.