The shared experience of Covid-19 will ignite social change

Some communities and groups of people are objectively more capable of handling the COVID-19 pandemic than others. For example, COVID-19 is ravaging inner-city communities because social distancing is difficult to practice in places where there is overcrowding. In addition, many people living in low-income neighborhoods are essential retail workers who can't afford to take a leave of absence from their jobs, resulting in them being in contact with members of the public each day, therefore putting them at greater risk of contracting the virus. This puts everybody in danger- including wealthy consumers who are better equipped to take precautions against COVID-19. The virus has "validated the core socialist tenet that we are all dependent on each other. When one nation lacks the public-health infrastructure necessary to contain an infectious disease, the public health of all nations is undermined,” journalist Eric Levitz says. “If millions of Americans cannot afford to stay home from work or access medical care when they are ill, the well-being of all Americans is jeopardized.” ^[1]The COVID-19 pandemic is an equalizer in the sense that it is a shared trauma, as every person in an infected society is impacted by the virus to some degree, and nobody is immune from infection, regardless of their privilege. Additionally, the pandemic is highlighting the various injustices and disparities that exist within our society. One example is how some businesses are forcing their employees to return to work once stay at home orders are lifted, despite some employees not feeling safe doing so. As a result, consumer spending is now a form of social protest: "Company behavior now will affect consumer purchasing choices later. More than three-quarters of Americans say that how a company treats employees and customers during the pandemic will be an important factor when determining whether to support them in a post-COVID world." ^[2] As a result, companies are more likely to adopt ethical business practices, such as expanding healthcare for their workers or raising their wages to compensate for the increased risk they're being put at, even though its at a greater cost to the company as a whole. Recently, "socialism has won the sympathies of Millennials, and now that generation has been riveted by two great traumas—the financial crisis and coronavirus recessions—that profoundly impair their careers, ability to purchase homes, and raise children." ^[3]The financial crisis is another example of a shared trauma that ignited a wave of social change, leading to disillusioned young Americans flocking to Bernie Sanders and supporting his socialist beliefs. The crisis is being exacerbated by certain aspects of capitalism, and because an incredibly vast number of people within society are being negatively impacted, this shared trauma will result in demands for reform and a shift towards a more compassionate, flexible economic system.

[P1] COVID-19 is an equalizer because it has a ripple affect that defies class, gender, or race privilege and affects everybody. Therefore, it's a shared trauma. [P2] This has lead to social change because consumers are now more aware of how the unethical actions of corporations are affecting society as a whole, and are using their purchases as an act of economic protest.