DANCING WITH THE UNDEAD

I'm not a gambling type of dude. You're not likely to ever find me in a casino or even catch a glimpse of me belly-upped to a slot machine or standing in a line to purchase a lottery ticket. I'm the type of cat who takes a hard pass on scams or affinity schemes that "guarantees" outrageously high returns in exchange for plopping down some ducats. I'm a "you can't beat the house" type of negro, and my eyes roll but never get big when someone dangles before me one of those endless "you can't miss" dreams. I'm gone the minute somebody tries to pull me into what looks like a pyramid scheme and the second you tell me something is a "can't miss" I'm raising up and getting in the wind. I'm pretty much risk averse. I'm gonna take the "bird in the hand" over the "two in the bush." I'm just not much of a gambler. I'm pretty much a brother who doesn't bother much with betting.

BANKING ON ZOMBIES

But, in light of the COVID-19 induced recession, here's something I will bet on: I'm betting on a zombie invasion. I'm betting on the undead showing back up. I'm betting on a certain kind of creepiness crawling out of graves and masticating on the body politic. I'm betting on a vengeful return of lumbering ideas that launch yet another attack on life. I'm betting on receiving an invitation to dance with the undead.

I'm betting that the zombies are back.

Really? Zombies are a thing? Well, yeah, kind of. That is, if you think of zombies as metaphor for economic ideas that have been proven wrong and dangerous--yet still walk amongst us. Zombies are a thing, if ideas that have been empirically disconfirmed and, therefore, should be as dead as a doorknob, continue to hold sway and possess the power to lead us down a deathly road. As far as I can tell, the economist Paul Krugman was one of the earliest to use the metaphor of zombies to identify ideas that need to be buried. Krugman puts it this way, zombies are "ideas that should have been killed by contrary evidence, but instead keep shambling along, eating people's brain.." The economist John Quiggin, author of Zombie Economics: How Dead Ideas Still Walk Among Us, gets at the same thing when he writes:

"Ideas are long-lived, often outliving their originators and taking new and different forms. Some ideas live on because they are useful. Others die and are forgotten. But even when they have proved themselves wrong and dangerous, ideas are hard to kill. Even after the evidence seems to have killed them, they keep coming back. These ideas are neither alive nor dead; rather...they are undead, or Zombie ideas."

They keep coming back. Ideas like, you bless the poor by giving tax cuts to the rich. Ideas like a strong safety net makes folks trifling. Ideas like, the privatization of government services is always a winner. Ideas like, the market always knows and does what's best.

And, ideas like, being austere is the only way governments can dig themselves out of the economic doldrums.

THE ZOMBIE OF AUSTERITY

The zombie of austerity is the rusty and disproven claim that the only way for governments to claw their way out of economic calamity is by implementing a set of policies designed to reduce public debt and deficits by slashing spending and cutting benefits. Governments, so the story goes, can only pull themselves out of the economic doldrums by getting their finances in order, by bringing into alignment their expenditures and their revenues; by not not borrowing more and not driving up interest rates by competing with the private sector over a limited amount of funds. Governments must be austere because they've supposedly become bloated and unhealthy, with that alleged unhealthiness causing noting but economic distress. Slim and trim is the name of the game. Getting fit is what it's all about. Or so they say.

Practitioners of the art of zombie economics deliver poison when, in fact, what the "patient" really needs is a healthy dose of medicine. The zombies of austerity insist on slashing spending when, in fact, increased spending is what is really needed to awaken the "patient" out of a deep coma. They--the zombies of austerity-- counsel continued bloodletting when, in fact, what is needed is a stimulus. These zombies incessantly shriek that everything needs to fall back, that government must be austere, until public spending and revenues are properly aligned. Until the debt is demolished and the public's books are balanced. Want to stave off the suffering of millions of jobless folk? Not until "what goes out" no longer exceeds "what's coming in." Want to go bold and put people to work rebuilding the nation's infrastructure? Not until the public gets out of the red and into the black? Want to provide another round of stimulus checks to help people navigate the the health and economic turbulence unleashed by this COVID induced recession? Not until the nation can get itself out of the hock. It's the same old zombie howl:

Forget about it.

Sit tight.

We got to gut this thing out.

Well, the problem is that economic austerity causes and deepens the very thing that you're trying to avoid--namely, an economy sliding into the slumps. Cutting public spending in response to an economic downturn reduces demand even further, increases joblessness, and pushes an ailing economy even deeper into the dumps. Austerity deepens and prolongs the descent. In times of economic distress, the last thing we need to be doing is listening to the shrieks and calls of the austerity zombie. When people are suffering, when homelessness is increasing, when poverty is on the ascend, the last thing we need to do is to be austere. The cure for a slumping economy is a stimulus, a jolt that is sufficiently strong to bring it out of it's drowsy or comatose state and prep it for a full recovery. Sure, that injection is going to cost bucks and will increase the debt. But that's a debt that can be repaid once the "patient" is up and running.

WHO'S GOING TO TAKE THE WEIGHT?

But here's another thing: The austerity zombie tracks and chases down Black and poor bodies with particular alacrity. The nibbling and gnawing falls disproportionately on the most economically vulnerable. The deleterious effect of zombification contributes to the erosion of the very structures that are needed to protect the poor from a further plunge into economic precarity.

Consider, for instance, the impact that the current recession is having on the state budgets Reeling from steep drops in sales and income taxes, many states and cities are or will find themselves between that proverbial rock and a hard place. Moreover, this drop in dollars is occurring at the same time that growing numbers of citizens are in need of some form of public assistance.

Bellies still need to be feed.

Children still need care.

Rent still got to get paid.

Meds still need to be copped

Utilities still cost

Transportation cost stay real

All of which is topped off by the fact that most states are constitutionally required to balance their budgets. Most states are legally prohibited from running in the red. And one of the ways they'll do this is to go full speed austere. They'll start slashing stuff.

Tuition at state universities get raised

Housing assistance drops

Publicly funded child care dwindles

Nutrition assistance gets knuckled

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) gets curtailed

Unemployment Insurance (UI) gets whacked

Folk get furloughed

This type of slashing is particularly stinging on the bodies and livelihoods of those toward the bottom of the income distribution. As political economist Mark Blyth puts it: "If state spending is cut, the effects of doing so are, quite simply, unfairly and unsustainably distribution. Zombification, in short, seriously zaps the the poor and working class.

And don't overlook this: Getting all austere will hit women particularly hard. Especially Black and non-White women. Women account for almost 6 out of every ten public sector workers, and almost half of Black women in the workforce are found in such public sector jobs as education, health services, and public administration. In the month of October alone, local and state education jobs fell by 98,000 and 61,000, respectively. If the austerity zombies are allowed to run wild then this, coupled with the recent upsurge in the COVID, is just a harbinger of what might come.

Zombification is indeed a thing. A class thing, a racial thing, and gender thing.

REFUSING THE INVITATION TO DANCE

The upshot is this: Staving off the suffering requires federal assistance to states and localities. Absent a robust stimulus plan, folk--especially the poor and Black folk-- are vulnerable to the ravenous appetite of the zombie austerity.

Bet on hearing the shuffling feet of Zombies in the days ahead. Bet on hearing Zombies at the Federal level groaning about how nothing can be done now. How "we" have to just buckle down and put all our effort into eliminating the public death. Bet on being invited to join in with them. To support them. To get down with them. To join in a deadly dance that tramples upon the lives and livelihoods of the least of these. Bet on all that, and more.

But bet on this too: Some of us ain't having it. Some of us are prepared to resist the coming zombie invasion. Some of us ain't down and will never be down with cooperating with zombies.

Some of us love justice too much

Some of us love life too

Some of us love poor people too much

Some of us love Black women too much

Some of us love ourselves too much

To ever cooperate with the deadly project of zombification.

Some of know that building and crossing the bridge that leads to a brighter future begins by refusing to dance with the undead.

Catch you on the flip side

Doc Greene