American "reboot" starts with Americans
Some scholars fault “human nature” for failing to contain the Coronavirus in America. Human brains simply aren’t wired to emphasize the importance of doing things, like wearing masks, that protect others but offer no immediate payoff, said Paul Slovic, a University of Oregon psychologist, in a July 19, 2020 Washington Post article.
“Human nature” is apparently different in America than countries. Austria has one infected Austrian for every 50 infected Europeans and for every 500 infected Americans. Chinese, Hong Kongers, Taiwanese, Japanese, Singaporeans, and Vietnamese have all kept daily infections in the range of 10 to 200 a day. In America, we are approaching 100,000 new cases per day.
The most revealing lesson of the Coronavirus pandemic is the extent to which the American system protects its own people and others, particularly the most vulnerable. The deadly trends correlate to many factors, from economic inequality, lack of access to resources, baseline health profiles, and distrust of authority. But the numbers are clear.
In NYC, where the population is approximately 22% black, 29% Hispanic and 32% white, fatalities attributed to Coronavirus are 28%, 34%, 27%, respectively. In Milwaukee County, the 26% of the population that is African American accounts for 81% of recorded Coronavirus deaths. In Michigan, the black community makes up 14% of the population but has logged 41% of Coronavirus deaths. In Illinois, the numbers are similar. The statistics in every state will prove similar.
These trends translate beyond our borders.
With just 4% of the world’s population, the U.S. has 24% of its coronavirus deaths and is responsible for 28.9% of its [direct and indirect] greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. (U.S. EPA, April 11, 2020).
In contrast, China, the world’s industrial superpower, tells another story. With 18% of the world’s population, it reports less than 1% of the world’s Coronavirus deaths and 26% of its GHG emissions.
By the numbers, America’s regard for its people is consistent with its regard for the rest of the world’s people and the planet: we are underperformers in caring about ourselves and each other.
America’s political systems seem custom-made to amplify the devastation engendered by our economic choices, scaling tragedy within our borders and around the world. America’s struggle to protect its people against existential threats – both COVID-19 and climate crisis largely of our own making – stems from a collective and systemic abdication of responsibility. American leaders – the people we elect to serve us – are forcing the pandemic to wend its way through our population as randomly as can be imagined. Forget the politics: the outcomes speak for themselves. At four percent of the world’s population, America punches above its weight to deliver more than one quarter of the world’s potential for unmitigated destruction. In the meantime, the chickens come home to roost: to protect its citizens from disease and death, the EU bans Americans from entering its borders.
The next economic downturn will reflect failures of vision and moral leadership at the highest levels of American government. There is a solution, and it starts and ends with the American people.