Tales Of Our Times

By JOHN BARTLIT
New Mexico Citizens
for Clean Air & Water 

Our economy and the ecology of infectious diseases are swirls of moving parts. The pandemic has made these truths clearer than usual and shined a light on party politics.

Each party pursues opposite policies, many of which have value to the nation. To win the contest, each party hews close to trendy campaigns that fail the nation. People of varied walks often say, “America is an idea.” Yet, history tells more exactly that America is a fusion of ideas.

Watch the parts. As if in perpetual motion, money cycles through the economy from one link to the next. Sectors tie together: Jobs to make new products for customers reap profits to make jobs for workers to buy other products that make jobs. The pandemic made it clearer that losing or slowing any of these activities slows many others.

The “ecology” of infectious diseases has ways, too, of showing the link of one “sector” to another: a virus attacks its prey before humans evolve inborn defenders, and workers make new products to fight off attacks, as new invaders evolve in people. Giant drug makers turn the tide.

A further surprise we get from these fresh looks is how strongly the economy and the ecology of infectious diseases interact with each other. These links have long been known, but get little attention. Each of the big political parties has the habit of framing national problems in ways that focus attention on certain selected links in the great circular chain. Each party looks to figure out appeals that will give it an edge in the vote, hoping to rule the roost.

Simplistic campaign ads are the fashion, which muddles the means of governing. Governance has fallen into constant campaigning. These days, pros and cons of policies are seldom acknowledged, much less weighed. The factors critical for solving a problem would ruin a campaign slogan. Despite all, America has built its progress on a fusion of ideas.

Small signs of linkages can be seen close up. The signs are larger when looking in larger circles. At our house, mice began building nests in car motors for the first time in years. Mice see no reason to let an idle car go to waste. Other wildlife is seen in new and different places, for better and for worse. Different birds are heard in more places. Wild predators roam farther into settled places, such as bears walking in downtown Los Alamos.

Roadkill is down, which is a loss for certain birds. Fewer cars on the road means fewer cars crash into other cars, needing less repair work. Auto insurers have refunded billions of dollars (with a “b”) to policy holders. Fewer cars on the road means gasoline sales and prices are down. Air pollution went way down in major cities all around the world. Each of these effects interacts with different sectors very differently.

The pandemic opened up new breeding grounds for issues. Think of masks, social distancing, vaccines, nursing home deaths, and travel bans. Party publicists sniffed out these chances and spun out portions of the news that have different appeals. As a “bonus,” each party can fairly accuse the other of politicizing everything.

The parties stay busy with campaigns that choose certain links in the economic ecosystem. A single stroke out of the blue might give one party a slight edge and, thus, the lion’s share of clout. We hear at times how “working together” is a good way of doing this or that. More often, words and measures are used for flogging each other.

Both big parties face the same dilemma. How does one find a crisp motto or slogan that boosts selected parts of the great economic ecosystem while restrengthening connections that pull the lot together? The sad truth is that no punchy phrase promotes a working ecosystem. Ecologists explain the ways an ecosystem stays strong by the interacting functions of varied parts within it. Economics involves similar complexities.

Who will speak these principles to the country as a means of dealing with the nation’s problems?