Author: Emily Puisseaux Moreno (ORCID: 0000 0003 2415 4349)

“Making new body creams is more profitable than finding a vaccine that will protect people from total destruction” (Chomsky,2020)[1]

Let´s sell, these are the key words. There is no choice but to tell the story from scratch when we talk about the American National Health System. For many people, when thinking about capitalism, the first thing that comes to their minds is having a fresh start in life. They only believe in “rags to riches stories” of business tycoons, which led to the belief that if you have intelligence and work hard, you can attain everything you want, including financial security and material comfort. According to lots of people, improving the standard of living is only possible by emigrating to capitalist countries where you can make the most of each labor opportunity to lead a fulfilling life.

All these sorts of things only make it difficult for us to get down to the nitty-gritty of the issue. The beginnings of capitalism can be traced back to the 17^th century in England. But the very question is, how does capitalism work? It´s widely known that the term capitalism was coined on account of the term capital. In the wake of that, there is only an answer: the capitalist system is based on increasing material production and financial investments by privatizing all national industries. As time goes by, these companies are in charge of all the economic activity and many of them are allowed to put people out of work in order to be aligned with fiscal policies, without doubt, an untrue excuse. On paper, capitalists are only worried about accumulating money for their businesses, doing away with any policy in favor of the workers and involving more and more in the stock market to beat their commercial partners.

Michael Moore[2] said, “The National Health Service is nothing but a big economy in private medicine”, and obviously, he NHS has become less of a health institution and more of a commercial enterprise, which prefers getting merits for putting patients out of the hospital if they can´t afford this service rather than looking after them. There is only a reason for the NHS becoming such a profitable organization: caring for people is a stumbling block for increasing incomes.

How some Americans are said to be kept in the dark about this issue is a mystery. For instance, the current sanitary crisis has shown how fragile the NHS is. Thousands of citizens can´t attend hospitals due to the fact that they have to give up their insurances, as a result, they die of coronavirus and it´s all just brushed under the carpet.

Donald Trump management during this crisis  

The new coronavirus hasn´t only caused thousands of people´s deaths all over the world, but it has also shown the truth about capitalism. Before talking about the current situation, it is necessary to point out that capitalism has been identified by its supporters as a just system which promotes social justice. Some theories defend neoliberalism as a capitalist way to help other nations and describe the United States as a freedom role model for all countries.

Some months before the coronavirus outbreak, the US had forced NATO member states to increase their investments in this organization because the US held the major economic responsibility. The North American government invests more than twenty millions of dollars in NATO every year. This figure represents twenty-two percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP). According to the US government, European countries which belong to this international alliance were in debt with the US because it was the only State interested in keeping international security. But, how interested was The US in helping its own population during the current Covid-19 crisis?

First of all, we must remember that the US has been the most affected nation by coronavirus in the area. The government hasn´t been able to give its people appropriate medical attention. In fact, the US medical system is the worst in the developed world due to its defective structure. The Trump administration focused on presenting this pandemic as an excuse to continue the commercial war against China, instead of looking for a way to solve this trouble in its own nation. There are more than one thousand deaths every day. All medical teams demand the creation of necessary conditions to attend sick people. Nevertheless, the US kept its unilateral measures against “the black sheep of Latin America”: Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

Many international bodies, such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations and the Pan-American Health Organization are in favor of eliminating all coercive policies which affect the response against Covid-19. One of the main requests is to end the economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba. This harsh policy doesn´t only affect the Caribbean island, but also keeps the American people from obtaining Cuban medicines.

The US government prefers discrediting Cuban doctors´ labor in other nations. However, sending our doctors to all continents only demonstrates that Cuba promotes solidarity rather than hostility. The current international crisis needed an answer from the US according to its position in the global geopolitics, but it shows one more time that capitalism isn´t the way to leave underdevelopment and solve the main social and political conflicts among countries. In summary, capitalism only legitimates mankind´s end.

It´s necessary to think about the way we live so as to understand why Michael Moore says that socialism is great. While our hospitals offer proper health services to our population regardless of any kind of condition, American health institutions only take advantage of the current situation to become richer and richer. Obviously, minorities and ethnic groups are the most affected in the US, but there is no one worried about that: Let´s sell our services, let´s sell the opportunity to be alive, let´s force all citizens to buy our aid if they really want to survive, then, the auction can start.

“Socialism is great! What it means is looking after the citizens, having a safety net, having a health service, having pensions, being able to retire when you´re 65 and enjoy gardening”. (Moore, 2020)

Bibliography

Chomsky, N. (2020). What everyone needs to know about Covid 19. [Digital]. United States of America: M. Madness. Retrieved marzo 20, 2021, from https://getsnap.link/i7r1iw6k5LT

Cumbre de la OTAN: Más gasto militar, ataques personales y divisiones políticas, con Trump en el centro. (2019, diciembre 4). Retrieved from http://www.cubadebate.cu

Iran Sanctions. (n.d.). Retrieved abril 11, 2021, from http://home.treasury.gov

Los aliados de la OTAN elevaron su gasto en defensa en 2020 pese a la crisis. (2021, marzo 16). Retrieved from http://www.elpais.com

Michael Moore American filmmaker and author. (2021, abril 19). Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com

Moore, M. (2020). Roger Waters: «Socialism is great!»Rumble with Michael Moore podcast. [Digital]. United States of America. Retrieved febrero 27, 2021, from https://youtu.be/Uv9PvxZ-gK8

Noam Chomsky. (n.d.). Retrieved abril 10, 2021, from http://es.m.wikipedia.org

Sanctions Programs and Country Information U.S. Department of the Treasury. (n.d.). Retrieved abril 11, 2021, from http://home.treasury.gov

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[1] Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic and political activist, sometimes called “the father of modern linguistics”. He is also a major figure in analytic philosophy and one of the founders of the field of cognitive science.

[2] Michael Moore is an American documentary filmmaker, author, and political activist, who is best known for a series of documentaries that address major political and social issues in the United States.