Mike Rowe: Big business response to the coronavirus will show 'what capitalism is really all a

[donnay]

Mike Rowe: Big business response to the coronavirus will show 'what capitalism is really all about'

by Dominick Mastrangelo
| March 24, 2020 06:30 PM

Television star and businessman Mike Rowe predicted a nationwide outbreak of the coronavirus will help make the case for capitalism.

“We’re going to see what capitalism is really all about,” Rowe said Monday on Fox & Friends. “When we have these big conversations about the direction the country is headed and what direction the country ought to be headed ... this is a chance, unlike anything I’ve ever seen, for corporate America to step up and do what the government simply can’t do."

The outbreak of the pandemic has led to a slowed economy with hundreds of thousands missing work. Restaurants, bars, and other nonessential businesses have been shuttered in states across the country.

President Trump has insisted the virtual shutdown of small businesses is only temporary and that the U.S. economy will "pop" back once the virus has passed.

Meanwhile, U.S. health officials have scrambled to get necessary medical supplies to healthcare workers on the front lines of the crisis.
Companies such as Facebook and Apple have pledged to donate goods or help the supply chain for the manufacturing of surgical masks or ventilators.

“Obviously, the government has a primary role in this, but I don’t think they can do it alone,” Rowe said. "It’s everybody doing what they can in a way that I think could ultimately make about the most compelling case for capitalism that we’ve seen in our lifetime.”

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/n...ally-all-about

[kpitcher]

Actual free market would let some companies actually fold and have better run companies step in. It may be ugly short term yet in the long term the better company should make the entire market stronger. The downside is of course the average worker who gets shafted in a corporate closing, not having a golden parachute like execs.

[RJB]

All the weak mom and pop shops will go out of business. All the companies with enough lobbying power to get bailouts will thrive. 5 years from now when you take your date out for a dinner and your choices are limited to Taco Bell and McDonald's, thank corporatism for weeding out the weak independent restaurants.