Bailouts are not the answer to combating coronavirus. Action and service are | Opinion

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee was right last week when he recalled the nation’s focused determination on December 8, 1941, the day after Pearl Harbor. That was the day that President Roosevelt concentrated the entire attention and energies of the nation on fighting a war that had long been raging and had at last reached our shores. Everyone mobilized to join the battle.

We need another such call to action and service now. The number of COVID-19 cases in the US continues to skyrocket. Meanwhile our economy teeters on the brink of free fall. Until we address the causes of the crisis, which are medical not economic, and until we get everybody working and able to live their lives again, we will not be OK. 

Bailouts-as-usual, no matter how large, will not do the trick. We cannot just wish the enemy or its effects away. We must re-purpose our economy for the duration of this crisis to contain the virus and support those whose lives have been irrevocably changed.

Why are the president and the Congress talking bailouts and stimulus packages when they should be talking about mobilizing an army of public health and emergency response workers?

In 1933, with the country similarly gripped by fear and without clear direction, President Roosevelt roused the nation from its depression by putting millions of people to work doing what needed to be done. He called one facet of his effort the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which eventually gave three million young men and women gainful, socially useful employment. 

Today, we need another CCC — a Coronavirus Containment Corps—and an emergency public works program to fight the virus and stop the pandemic.

We are not starting from scratch. The public health and emergency management authorities know what to do. They need more people and resources to do it. A new CCC would supplement and support the existing Public Health Service, which has offices in every state and the potential to be on every street corner. FEMA and the armed services both have experience in disaster areas, providing the shelter and other facilities. Give them the resources and the people they need to do the job.

We also need a vastly expanded army of supply-line support workers, as well as construction workers, tech workers, truck drivers, and others, if we are to meet the demand for health care facilities and supply lines that is coming and are able to make sure that everyone has what they need to survive. There are local development authorities, employer associations, and unions ready to fill the void, if they can get the resources to do so.

To win this war, we need boots on the ground, moral support from the public, and a blank check from the government. We must produce millions of test kits, proper personal protective equipment and other necessary medical supplies. We must build infrastructure and supply lines. We cannot rely on bluster and nudges to get the job done. The president needs actually to use the powers of the Defense Production Act, and not just refer to it for effect.

Now is not the time for half-measures, one-time cash handouts, or shillyshallying trickle-down economics. Now is the time for rise-up economics. We must put people to work fighting the spread of coronavirus. By doing so, we will also be putting money where it is most needed and useful — directly into the people’s pockets.

The federal government prides itself on being the lender-of-last-resort. Now is the time for Washington to step forward as the employer-of-last-resort.

Michael Merrill, an economist and labor historian, is a professor of professional practice in the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. He is director of the school’s Labor Education Action Research Network.