RETHINKING MARXISM, 2020 Vol. 32, No. 4, 570–588, https://doi.org/10.1080/08935696.2020.1809837
COVID and Capitalism: A Conversation with Richard Wolff Vincent Lyon-Callo How do we make sense of the ways in which COVID-19 has developed and been responded to in the United States? How can nondeterminist class analysis help us to understand why the pandemic has impacted the United States so severely compared to other nations? What do these policies and experiences reveal about current capitalist economic and social relations within the United States today? Are there possibilities for interventions through a nonessentialist Marxist analysis and understanding? On a beautiful June afternoon, Rethinking Marxism coeditor Vin Lyon-Callo discussed these questions via zoom with his former professor, long-term RM board member, and host of the quite popular public intervention Economic Update, Richard Wolff (lightly edited for content and clarity). Key Words: Capitalist Crisis, Nondeterminist, Profit Motive
COVID-19
Pandemic,
Class
Analysis,
VINCENT LYON- CALLO : When I first sat in your class focused on many Marxisms, more than three decades ago, and began to see the rich tapestry of Marxist scholarship, I could not imagine we would be here today so many years later discussing a global pandemic. What an interesting time this has become and what a privilege it is to talk with you again today. Let’s start off with an easy question: On your Economic Update on June 8th, 2020, (Wolff 2020c) you discuss a very practical question: Why is it that the U.S., with 5 percent of the world’s population, has 30 percent of the world’s deaths from COVID-19 thus far, and what might be the Socialist alternative? This leads to other questions, such as: How can that be, despite the fact that the U.S. also is one of the world’s wealthiest countries? Why is it that so many Americans are getting so sick and dying? Might it have something to do with the vast inequalities that existed in the U.S. prior to COVID-19 even arriving? RICHARD WOLFF : As with all good questions, there are many factors that play in. You might even say that it is complexly overdetermined that we have 5 percent of the people of the world and 30 percent of the deaths from COVID-19. So let me go through just some of them. Absolutely, the inequality in this country means that, yes, we are one of the wealthiest countries in the world, but what has to be added © 2020 Association for Economic and Social Analysis