Burdening the poor: Extreme responses to COVID-19 in India and the Southeastern United States

Abstract

India and the United States – both large, diverse, and unequal democracies – have responded very differently to the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, in both cases, the poor have been disproportionately burdened. In India, a hurried and unplanned lockdown caused extreme distress among workers and poorer sections of society while social protections have been woefully inadequate. In the US, working classes and racial minorities are bearing the brunt of COVID-19 infections and deaths. Precipitous actions to reopen the economy, and overt references to workers as ‘human capital stock’ [1], are exposing a vulgar and partisan mindset, in which productivity ‘trumps’ both equity and humanity.