In New York City, there are not too many words a parent of a teenage boy fears more than, “No basketball”. Few here can afford spacious quarters, so sending frisky kids like my 13-year-old out to play ball with friends is crucial for familial bonhomie. But state governor Andrew Cuomo has banned this, as part of New York’s social distancing protocol. Hoops and spirits are down.
Much has been written about how US President Donald Trump is mishandling national efforts to stem the spread of Covid-19, and rightly so. The country now has more cases than any other, overtaking China and Italy, and numbers are unlikely to peak before May.
But what I see in my own neighbourhood underscores how Mr Trump’s fumbling response to coronavirus is part of a bigger national problem. Policy choices, made over decades, have relentlessly favoured the interests of the private sector in general, and large corporations in particular, over both the state and labour, in ways that are proving costly to our health and our economy.