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billion annually (based on the value of the US$ in 2017).” The study
continues:
The entire system could be funded with less financial outlay
than is incurred by employers and households paying for health-
care premiums combined with existing government allocations.
This shift to single payer health care would provide the greatest
relief to lower-income households. Furthermore, we estimate that
ensuring health-care access for all Americans would save more
than 68,000 lives and 1.73 million life-years every year compared
with the status quo.
But it would raise taxes. And it seems that many Americans
would prefer to spend more money as long as it doesn’t go to taxes
(incidentally killing tens of thousands of people annually). That’s a
telling indication of the state of American democracy, as people ex-
perience it; and from another perspective, of the force of the doctri-
nal system crafted by business power and its intellectual servants.
The neoliberal assault has intensified this pathological element of
the national culture, but the roots go much deeper and are illustrat-
ed in many ways, a topic very much worth pursuing.
C.J. Polychroniou: While some European countries are doing
better than others in managing the spread of COVID-19, the
countries that appear to have had greater success with this task
lie primarily outside the Western (neo)liberal universe. They are
Singapore, South Korea, Russia and China itself. Does this fact tell
us something about Western capitalist regimes?
There have been various reactions to the spread of the virus.
China itself seems to have controlled it, at least for now. The same is
true of the countries in China’s periphery where the early warnings
were heeded, including democracies no less vibrant than those of
the West. Europe mostly temporized, but some European coun-
tries acted. Germany appears to hold the global record in low death
rates, thanks to spare health facilities and diagnostic capacity,
and rapid response. The same seems to be true in Norway. Boris

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