I'm not sure that's true. Trump, for one, would very much like to ease restrictions on trade as quickly as possible, but other Americans may stop him. Astonishingly, his approval is high right now, so I guess a lot of Americans believe what he's said about his own response. They seem to be a very credulous people. I doubt the French people would be as tolerant of a government that had such disregard of their welfare. It's going to be different in each country, but
none of their decisions will be based on the future well-being of Vietnam. (See their
past actions in Vietnam.)
But there is great concern in America for the
American economy.
https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2020/03/24/43234830/the-logic-behind-sacrificing-old-people-for-the-economy Only, the ones expressing this solicitude for the economy seem to have very little idea how it actually works - or how fast it would gurgle southward if all the elderly consumers, fee-payers, service-users, subscribers, investors, small business owners, consultants, ticket-holders, drivers, premium-payers, charity donors and volunteers were removed in a few months.
This is just starting remember, and once it’s over it’s going to take time to get everything back on track. I imagine the less developed countries will take longer to get back on track than the rest.
You just can't seem to accept that "everything" will
never get back on the same "track".
The very problems you're concerned about demonstrate that it was the wrong track to be on.
Something was bound to derail that train, sooner rather than later.
We have been expecting the decisive event to be related to climate change: famine and displacement of masses of by drought, flood, hurricane, wildfirefire, etc. and that will probably still happen -
certainly, if everything gets back on track. Very many people are going to suffer and die, whatever the catalyst. The overwhelming majority of casualties in
any catastrophe are the poor - poverty itself is a state of permanent designated victimhood. That's how civilization is structured.
This may or may not be that critical world-changing event. If it is, each government is responsible for its own people - and cannot be responsible to or for any entity or interest beyond its borders. You can blame them all you want, but they just can't do more than they can do.
Of course they will try to keep capitalism going. I certainly haven't heard of any plans to raid the off-shore tax havens of the super-rich, and bitcoin is going stronger than ever, hiding wealth as fast as it can. But capitalism has taken a few hits and there will be more: it can be weakened, and
then maybe something more equitable can take its place.
Putting all the marginal people you're concerned about back on their same precarious ledge of the economic edifice would not serve them well. Whatever else happens, a lot of jobs will be lost forever: that ledge will be more crowded than ever. There is no getting around that.
The next question is: What can their own governments do to foster independence from the world economy? How can they help local initiatives in food production, energy generation, housing and cottage industries?
Do not look for long-term solution from western "leaders": they're scrambling to save their own assets.
... I’m just REALLY concerned about the longterm fallout and think it is something that needs public discussion rather than hoping commonsense will prevail and/or the virus will simply be history in a few weeks.
This particular virus probably will be history in a couple of years. But it has cousins and offspring waiting to jump on us from unexpected hiding places. Nobody has a handle on the immediate effects of
this outbreak itself, let alone long-term fallout. So far, they haven't even had time to discuss their own policies for the next three months. If they started trying to calculate their policies' effect on long-term global issues, they'd be paralyzed.
Keep in mind where I live this is 2 months in and no one has died here yet. If no one dies here at all and inequality goes up faster and faster due to the lockdown how many will be out of education? Homeless? Starving? How many generations will suffer because of this?
I don't know. But their inequality is not within my purview to address.
Surely, they must do something about it for themselves.
I’d be extremely happy if someone could convince me that I’m the one overreacting.
If anyone tries, take it with a very critical grain of salt.
This is a very big deal. This is the biggest thing that hit the world since WWII, and it may grow even bigger.
If common sense prevails in more populations than the various kinds of bedbug-crazy that's been crawling out of the woodwork, we survive it with not-quite-so-many casualties.