5 OPINION Thursday, May 28, 2020 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com 5 OPINION A s COVID-19 continues to run its course across the United States, there are few aspects of Ameri- can life that have avoided this pandemic’s disastrous impact. According to medical data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, over 100,000 Americans have succumbed to COVID-19. At the same time, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington projects that our nation will see over 130,000 deaths by early August as states begin to relax social distancing measures. While the deaths from COVID-19 con- tinue to mount, the economic carnage from shutdowns aimed at stopping the spread of COVID-19 is unprecedented in modern American history. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national unemployment rate has skyrocketed to nearly 15 percent, with the economy slash- ing over 20 million jobs in April alone. Meanwhile, J.P. Morgan Chief Invest- ment Officer Bob Michele predicted that our economy may not reach the levels of employment we enjoyed before the pan- demic for 10-12 years. But as thousands of Americans lose their lives to COVID-19 — and millions more forfeit their livelihoods — another, more subtle level of loss is rippling across the nation. It’s become clear that as this global pandemic continues to threaten people’s lives and our economy, our essen- tial and celebrated freedoms as Americans are coming under increasing fire. Since governors across the nation have imposed stay-at-home orders in an effort to “flatten the curve,” our country has wit- nessed a slew of disturbing civil liberties violations that seemed unthinkable before COVID-19 turned life upside down. While it’s perfectly reasonable — and necessary — to expect changes to our daily lives in trying times like these, it seems that people across the nation have forgotten that our freedoms are never put on hold, even in the midst of crises. It’s clear our government has gone too far. While COVID-19 continues to undoubt- edly be a formidable threat, leaders have gone to unacceptable, sickening lengths to enforce government-mandated social distancing, threatening arrests and even jail time for violating stay-at-home orders. (Meanwhile, the stay-at-home orders themselves have come under scrutiny as Americans question how constitutional they really are.) In Dallas, Texas, a judge sent Shelley Luther, a salon owner, to jail for reopening her business and defying the stay-at-home order; Luther was called “selfish” in court even as she argued that she had no choice, saying her children were going hungry. After shock across the state, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott prohibited jail time for those who violate social dis- tancing, freeing Luther. Similar scenes are playing out across the country. In Philadelphia, PA., police violently removed a man from a bus for not wearing a face covering. Others have been fined or arrested for simply ventur- ing outside for a walk or exercise. While this excessive, dangerous enforcement of social distancing is threatening for all Americans, the New York Times reports that people of color are being dispropor- tionately arrested in particular. Beyond these incidents, it’s clear that our freedoms have been violated in count- less other ways as well. For instance, Americans have been barred from visiting places of worship like churches and syna- gogues to exercise their freedom of reli- gion, which meant that, for example, most Christians couldn’t go to church on Easter, their holiest day of the year. Meanwhile, in our criminal justice system, although the Constitution gives the accused the right to a speedy trial, a number of defendants have been forced to sit longer in jail as trial dates are pushed back. According to a recent article in the Lansing State Journal, “For defendants who are not in custody, the delay likely is an inconvenience. But for those in the county jail, the shutdown is an extra month — or more — that they have to wait for justice.” Moreover, governments across the country now openly discuss implementing advanced contact tracing and surveillance programs to help curb COVID-19, even though these programs would clearly infringe on our freedoms and privacy rights. In addition to these civil liberties vio- lations, the rhetoric of politicians and leaders across the country is downright disturbing. In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio suggested that New Yorkers turn in those that are breaking social- distancing rules to the city, a move that some Americans quickly denounced as “communist.” In Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot told residents that they would be treated like criminals if they didn’t follow social distancing regulations, say- ing, “We will shut you down, we will cite you, and if we have to, we will arrest you.” Lightfoot continued, “Don’t make us treat you like a criminal, but if you act like a criminal and you violate the law and refuse to do what’s necessary to save lives in the middle of a pandemic, we will take you to jail. Period.” It is understandable that New York and Chicago — along with a number of other hard-hit cities — are continuously grappling with how to deal with COVID-19, but there is a way to curb the spread of COVID-19 without such bla- tant disregard for our precious freedoms that we all celebrate as Americans. Don’t let COVID tread on our freedoms EVAN STERN | COLUMNIST Evan Stern can be reached at erstern@umich.edu. ZACK BLUMBERG | OP-ED F rom the end of World War II through the present day, the United States has main- tained a position as the world’s pre- mier superpower. For decades, the American values of hard work, indi- vidualism, liberalism and free-mar- ket capitalism appeared to lead to massive successes, including tech- nological advancement, economic prosperity and high standards of living. However, as COVID-19 has exposed, the values which people once associated with America’s brand of strength and prosperity now appear antiquated and out- dated and are ultimately holding the U.S. back. While countries around the world have responded to the virus in different ways, American society’s fundamental focus on indi- vidualism, freedom and economic growth have exposed the inequal- ity, distrust of government institu- tions and lack of protections for vulnerable populations within our country. First and foremost, the spread of COVID-19 has highlighted Ameri- ca’s extreme inequality, something which is largely a product of Ameri- can society’s fanatical devotion to economic growth. As economist Milton Friedman declared in a 1970 New York Times Magazine article, “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Prof- its.” In the decades since Friedman’s article was published, it’s clear that America has taken his advice to heart. Today, the U.S. has 10 of the world’s 20 most profitable compa- nies, but at a cost: It also ranks 39th worst in income inequality, worse than countries such as Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Turkmenistan. Last year, a study found that nearly 60 percent of Americans had less than $1,000 in their bank accounts, another sign of America’s staggering income inequality. Unsurprisingly, America’s focus on profits, and its acceptance of the inequalities that philosophy inher- ently produces, has greatly con- tributed to the nation’s disastrous response to COVID-19. On April 21, a day on which over 2,600 Ameri- cans died of the virus, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said that “there are more important things than liv- ing and that’s saving this country.” Similarly, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie commented, “there are going to be deaths no matter what,” but “we have to stand up for the American way of life.” In saying this, Christie clearly implied that the American way of life is primar- ily focused on economic growth — inequality and public health be damned. When faced with skyrock- eting unemployment rates, the U.S. Congress was both unwilling and unable to come up with an econom- ic solution that addressed America’s income inequality. Although the federal government ultimately sent out a one-time $1,200 stimulus check to citizens, by April 23, only 10 days after the first checks were deposited, 84 percent of Americans said they already needed another check to make ends meet. That fed- eral relief bill, which cost over $2 trillion in total, simply proved how unassailable American inequality has become. The COVID-19 pandemic has also revealed the problems with the American society’s support of free- market capitalism, as workers often find themselves under-protected and devoid of rights. Although there has consistently been some opposi- tion to America’s overly laissez-faire attitude — such as Upton Sinclar’s 1906 novel “The Jungle” — support for deregulation and limited gov- ernment oversight of the private sector is a major component of both America’s society and economy. As of 2015, American employees worked an average of 1,779 hours per year, the seventh most of any nation globally. Additionally, American workers often have far less nego- tiating power with their employ- ers than their global counterparts: only 10.6 percent of Americans are part of labor unions, far lower than countries of comparable wealth and development such as the U.K. (24.7 percent), Canada (26.5 percent) and Germany (17.7 percent). COVID-19 has exposed the fun- damental flaws of this anti-regula- tory attitude, showing the danger of limiting workers’ rights in favor of supporting businesses. A quar- ter of U.S. workers have no paid sick leave, meaning many essen- tial workers face a difficult choice: do they go into work and risk get- ting themselves or others sick, or do they stay home and risk getting fired, losing essential benefits such as healthcare? Even when workers have attempted to demand better treatment in response to the virus, the power imbalance between them and their employers makes this an impossible battle: On March 30, Amazon fired an employee who had planned to lead a strike demand- ing safer working conditions. Ultimately, America’s support for businesses has hamstrung work- ers’ ability to receive the protections they deserve, leading to preventable deaths. American society’s individualism and distrust of government institu- tions have worsened the COVID- 19 crisis, creating an atmosphere in which necessary measures are seen by some as totalitarian attacks on freedom and liberty. Across the country, protestors have come out to defend their self-proclaimed rights to things such as haircuts, believing that the government’s stay-at-home orders infringe upon their personal liberties. While other countries’ citizens appear to under- stand the importance of deferring to public health experts in the name of safety, the American ethos of individualism appears to include defending one’s right to contracting the virus. More broadly, this rep- resents American society’s funda- mental distrust of government: At a time when trusting institutions is essential for a cohesive response to a deadly virus, some Americans are unwilling to put aside their personal biases for the communal well-being. This focus on individual liber- ties above all else is also apparent in the federal government’s response to the pandemic. In comparison to America’s constant concerns about creating too extensive a wel- fare system, which has limited the federal government’s willingness to intervene, other countries have taken much more comprehensive responses: Canada’s plan includes C$2,000 stimulus checks for four months, while Denmark’s govern- ment “agreed to cover the cost of employees’ salaries at private com- panies as long as those companies do not fire people,” effectively freez- ing the Danish economy until after the worst of the virus has passed. In conclusion, COVID-19 has exposed a bevy of problems with the once-fabled American value sys- tem, showing the downsides to the tenets which had previously been associated with creating the world’s wealthiest nation. Today, those same values of free-market economics and individual rights are responsible for America’s inhumane response to the pandemic and have laid bare the deep-rooted inequalities, weak worker protections and unwilling- ness to sacrifice for the greater good. How COVID-19 exposed America’s failing values Zack Blumberg is a junior in the College of Literature, Science & the Arts and can be reached at zblumber@umich.edu. Read more at MichiganDaily.com