Covid-19 Crises and Impact on USA (Essay Sample)

ECONOMIC ASSIGNMENT
COVID-19 CRISES AND IMPACT ON USA
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WORD COUNT: 1246
INTRODUCTION
COVID-19 crises has become a global crises affecting the whole world. It was first realised in China and later spread to other countries. It has led to loss of lives, and economic vandalization (Atkeson, 2020; McKibbin & Fernando, 2020). Most governments have become vulnerable and are being forced to take measures that would help reduce the sever impact of the disease.
It is said to be transmitted through contact and droplets from coughing. Its spread is wild and fast (Sohrabi et.al, 2020). This has forced most governments to intervene since the system is unable to rectify for the externality. The current essay will seek to assess the impacts of the disease and the extent to which the US government has intervened due to COVID-19.
Free market liberalism and Government intervention
Free markets are liberal markets. This are situations when the system is left to self-regulate itself following the forces of demand and supply. According Anderson et.al (2020), COVID-19 has shown a major weakness to the free economy theory. Most government’s especially the great economies have had the government intervene as this could be a definition of the world developed capitalist economies. Government interventions come in situations of market failure. With the case of COVID-19, governments are struggling with the pandemic as the virus is spreading very fast with the market system being unable to regulate its spread. Therefore, the freedom of citizens are limited by the government as it seeks for measures to reduce the spread. Government interventions were directed toward improvement of hospital facilities and emergency treatment (Baldwin & Tomiura, 2020).
Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19), emerged in 2019. It is a respiratory disease with no specific medication and thus treatment has been on bases of individual patient (Atkeson, 2020). The disease has been reported to have a lot of negative impact on economies including US. For the case of US, this signals an economic downturn since it attract a lot of financial cost. The US government spent a lot of finances to evacuate its citizens from other parts of the world especially from China (Atkeson, 2020). Installation of health equipment’s and especially the oxygen gadgets needed by patients have been expensive. The country had a shortage of masks to offer to its citizens. Closure of jobs, and cancellation of all flights meant a huge cost implication as the government had to intervene and give relief food to its citizens, while it was losing billion from all trade agreements brought to a hold (McKibbin & Fernando, 2020).
The US government has thus taken a wide range of measures to deal with the pandemic. Some of the measures include; closure of schools, closing of borders, cancellation of public gathering, working from home, quarantining of all residents coming from other countries, price controls, rationing, use of masks, social distancing at public areas, limit on number of people attending gatherings like funerals, and limitation of transport capacity (Sohrabi et.al, 2020).
The interventions that have so far been undertaken by the government are against the free economy philosophy which alleged that people should be left to operate normally. The theory argues that the virus will find a stiff system and it will end by itself. However, leaving thing to be normal and controlled by natural forces does not work for the virus (Baldwin & Tomiura, 2020). Therefore, the interventions are against the free market theory and limits its functioning. Hence, in the current crises, the natural forces as alleged by the free market philosophy is not operating.
SWOT analysis of the economic and social policies
Major economic polies include; price controls, rationing, working from home, closure of schools, closure of borders, use of masks, and limit of public transport capacity. This policies have an impact on the economic condition of the country. They have their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, as well as threats. The major strengths of the policies include; controlled movement thus limiting spread of the virus as it needs contact. The policies through the price control, ensure that citizens are not overpriced for goods they need to use as the government fixes the prices. Also, the policies limit chances of extended exposure to the disease risk by closure of borders (Anderson et.al, 2020). However, the policies have major weakness. For instance, the closure of boarders leads to termination of international trade which has an impact on businesses. In addition, business close, lead affect disposable income of people as well as their purchasing power negatively. Also, other policies decrease profits as public sector can only accommodate a few people which is not profitable. It should be noted that the policies also provide the government with opportunities including; industrial growth as more people embrace the use of ICT to be able to effectively work from home. In addition, the country make use of locally available material and capacity to make own masks. The major threats include; loss of economic power since the country will spend most of its resources to deal with the crises. It may also be faced with high risk of poverty as the government tries to feed the citizens (Atkeson, 2020).
On the other hand, social policies include; quarantine of people coming from other countries, social distancing, closure of gathering, and limit of people attending gatherings. These policies have strengths as well as weaknesses. The major strengths of the policies is to reduce the spread to the virus as the likelihood of contamination is reduced through social distancing. However, the policies have a major weakness of limiting the cultural values. Humans are known to be social beings which the policies bring to a hurlt (Atkeson, 2020). In addition, building institution of trust, reciprocity, and power becomes a challenge as argued by new institutional economists. The policies on the other hand, provide an opportunity for use of social media to build social bonds and thus positively impacting on globalisation and diversity (Sohrabi et.al, 2020). Building friends from all over the world will be made more enriching. The policies also create a rich platform for business to market their products and thus reach a wide market. The major threats to the policies include transmission of a lot of private information, and local cultural may be outweighed