Debt, Precarity and the Pandemic

Debt, Precarity and the Pandemic

This blog looks at the current public health crisis from a political economic perspective. It is inspired by a graduate class that began in January 2020 on the topic of debt, precarity, and financialization. The aim of the class was to explore the dynamics of the current economic regime and its tendency to foster inequality and social and economic insecurity.

The chief marker of this regime was previously the 2008 global economic crisis. At that time, the extreme inequality in our society became evident. While the world’s richest one percent have come to own nearly half of the world’s wealth, the wages of most working people have stagnated over the past forty years. There has been a shift away from standard full-time jobs, as a growing number of Canadians are working in non-standard work arrangements, without steady pay or stable hours. At the same time as the cost of living has increased, people have increasingly come to rely on credit as a means of making ends meet.

The current COVID crisis has gone further to demonstrate the extreme precarity of these economic arrangements. As unemployment has sky-rocketed to levels not seen since the Great Depression, many people are unable to make ends meet. Under record high debt levels, they cannot pay their rent over the next month and are unable to pay for basic necessities. While there has been some degree of social assistance, many countries around the world have been hampered through legacies of austerity and privatization that have left them without adequate infrastructure for care and support.

This blog documents how these arrangements have impacted the capacity of people to live in the context of crisis. Drawing from a range of case studies, we expose the different ways in which the precarity of the current economic system is being confronted–from access to medical insurance and housing, to the financialization of international aid and the push for universal basic income. In the process, we hope to show how the current crisis is not just a public health problem, but also a social and economic one.

Posts by Speculative Life Cluster

Capitalism at the Rescue of the Most Vulnerable Nations? The Irony of the World Bank’s Pandemic Bonds

196 million dollars. That is the amount that was withheld for more than three months to low and middle-income countries that should have been channeled for urgent aid to tackle the worst outcomes of the pandemic.

Speculative Life ClusterJune 30, 2020

A Rent Strike Was Inevitable

With government orders to ‘stay at home’ since March, housing is at the very heart of the COVID-19 crisis. Yet while mortgage freezes have ensured homeowners will be able to follow these rules, the Canadian government has done almost nothing to protect renters.

Speculative Life ClusterJune 12, 2020

Is the COVID-19 Pandemic paving the way towards a Universal Basic Income?

Among the many questions about what the pandemic might bring about, the idea of a universal basic income has captured the world’s attention. While often dismissed as unrealistic and unaffordable in the past, in a time when countless people have lost their jobs and livelihoods

Speculative Life ClusterJune 10, 2020

Viral Uncertainties: the limitations of American Medical Insurance

In the midst of the pandemic, stories of exorbitant treatment costs for the virus are covering newspapers across the United States. While federal and state governments have stepped in to cover some of the costs of testing and treatment

Speculative Life ClusterJune 10, 2020

Could COVID-19 be good for Montreal’s housing crisis? A look at post-crisis Airbnb

Since March, fully furnished listings that “sleep 11” and come with pool tables have materialized on long-term rental sites by the hundreds. And Montreal, one of Canada’s housing markets most impacted by Airbnb, is taking a moment to point its finger and laugh.

Speculative Life ClusterJune 9, 2020