Blessings of the Plaguefather

The article "Why Rich Countries must Protect Developing Nations from Coronavirus Pandemic" was a very interesting read, since it said almost nothing in a lot of words. It has a very weak central argument, arguing on some vague moral imperative to provide aid for developing nations. The line about the virus continuing to spread in developing nations and coming back to developed ones rings rather hollow, and the rest of the article was mostly empty language. It did raise an interesting question, though: would it be within the advantage of developed nations to assist developing ones? I'm not asking this question on moral grounds, morality and ethics will be thrown out the window for this discussion, I'm talking about whether or not it would be advantageous in a purely cynical capitalist sense. As a people, we have derived much of our wealth from exploitation. The East India Company may no longer exist, but the essence of its colonial profiteering makes up much of our economy. The siphoning of wealth from other lands to support an ever-increasingly decadent lifestyle has been the essence of western economics for centuries and it has not stopped now. Even today, the cycle of debt in African countries prevents many countries from using their natural resources, instead exporting them to pay off debt. This outflow of resources to satisfy ever-greater debt has stifled the growth of many nations. Consider the possibility of further destabilization of impoverished regions, this would likely lead to easier exploitation, as the requirement for aid would pressure governments to take on even greater debt without much ability to pay it off. You could say we have a moral obligation to help, but humans tend not to like disruptions to the status-quo, and often these pressures are great enough for people to run counter to what would normally be considered just and ethical action. Providing aid costs money, and the economy hasn't been doing particularly well. The fallout could allow us to exploit the nations we are already exploiting with greater ease, as well. In my opinion, we should be helping out developing countries, as we share at least part of the blame for why many of them are still developing. Refusing to help after our relentless consumption and political meddling caused problems for them would be too great an evil for me to stomach. This article, however, would do nothing to convince people who disagree with me. For some, status quo means more than honor, and the article doesn't provide a convincing counterargument to those who think we should keep our money to ourselves and deal with the problem here first. There is no question that we directly benefit from the instability of other nations, and providing weak arguments as to why we should assist them instead of allowing things to settle on their own will not change teh way we interact with developing nations.

Comments

Mia Stankowski said…
I think you make a valid point about the article having a weak central argument and fails to really be persuasive to the people who disagree with the logic that wealthier developed countries should provide aid to the still developing countries that could be set back much further by this pandemic. I also think your counter argument was very interesting with the entire economic side of this, yes the ideal is that we help those who need assistance, but then that raises the question is it really wise to spend money providing aid when our own economy isn't doing very fabulous and will continue to do worse most likely until we can take control of this pandemic?
March 30, 2020 at 7:30 PM
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