We have to do things differently, better

Dear Editor,

Feudalism declined in Europe from 12th century to 15th century. In the 1300s the bubonic plague swept across Asia and Europe. Over the next two centuries this disease killed millions. The death of so many led to economic and social changes.

The Magna Carta (1215) limited the king’s power and strengthened the rights of the nobles and the creation of Parliament. The common people benefited as the nobles used them to gain more power through parliamentary democracy and capitalism. The relationship moved from serf and lords to employer and employee.

The war between France and England between 1337 and 1453 shifted power from the feudal lords to the monarchs and common people.

Before the 18th century people used to live on farms and work from home. Just before the Industrial Revolution (18th century) manufacturers started to gather workers in one place under supervision for a wage.

I see a similar shift happening today caused by the COVID-19 crisis.

Capitalism, the current dominant economic system, whose main advocate is the United States, is unlikely to recover. The US is no longer practising capitalism with its Government buying corporate bonds and exchange traded funds (ETF), and giving forgiveable loans to big corporations. Some 20 per cent of US companies are zombie corporations being kept afloat by government money. When the US tried to raise interest rate to 2.5 per cent in December 2018 the stock market crashed. The Federal Reserve started to take interest rates to zero. Because of US debt of US$27.4 trillion interest rates will stay near zero indefinitely.

The future implementation of artificial intelligence, automation, biotech, and other technology will decrease the need for workers. And, the present work-from-home, where possible, orders cut the need for transportation and other goods and services like office space, gas, and work clothes.

Long and short of it, the present economic system is outdated. The International

Monetary Fund (IMF) is calling for a new Bretton Woods, which is a new economic order as a response to the novel coronavirus and it will become permanent.

The entire world will have introduce some sort of universal basic income in the form of unemployment relief or food subsidy. In Jamaica it is called a care package.

For most of civilisation the common people have lived a meagre existence. We moved from serfs and lords, but not quite equal beings. Our rulers, who replaced the kings, and business people, who replaced the lords, will have to do better for today’s civilisation.

Any well-thinking Jamaican will be deeply concerned with what is happening in the People’s National Party (PNP). Fresh from its leadership battle from which Mark Golding was elected president, the party now finds itself engulfed in gargantuan problems which threaten its very existence or, at any rate, its relevance to the Jamaican political landscape.

There are various characters that are essential to the movie script that is playing out in the present debacle. There is the honcho of the party. The contest between himself and Lisa Hanna was not as contentious as some expected it to be; it was civil with a high level of decency between the two candidates. But now that the mantle of leadership has fallen on his shoulders, Golding finds himself in the midst of lingering problems of disunity that have been tearing at the fabric of the party. There are oversized egos that need to be navigated. The overwhelming problem that faces the leader is that of bringing the disparate groups that have emerged in the party together so he can