Seven ways 2020 exposed america

If America learns nothing else from these dark times, here are 7 lessons it should take away from 2020: 1. WORKERS KEEP AMERICA GOING, NOT BILLIONAIRES. American workers have been forced to

put their lives on the line to provide essential services even as their employers failed to provide them with adequate protective gear, hazard pay, or notice of when COVID had infected their

workplaces. Meanwhile, America's 651 billionaires—whose net worth has grown by over $1 trillion since the start of the pandemic—retreated to their mansions, yachts and estates. Amazon

CEO Jeff Bezos sheltered in his 165,000-acre West Texas ranch while Amazon's warehouse workers toiled in close proximity to each other, often without adequate masks, gloves, or

sanitizers. The company offered but then soon scrapped a $2 an hour hazard pay increase for warehouse workers, even as Bezos' wealth jumped by a staggering $70 billion since March,

putting his estimated net worth at roughly $186 billion as the year came to an end. 2. SYSTEMIC RACISM IS LITERALLY KILLING BLACK AND LATINO AMERICANS. Black and Latino Americans account for

almost 40 percent of coronavirus deaths so far, despite comprising less than a quarter of the population. As they've borne the brunt of this pandemic, they've been forced to fight

for their humanity in another regard — taking to the streets across the country to protest decades of unjust police killings of their community members, only to be met with more police

violence. Among Native American communities, the coronavirus figures are even more horrifying. The Navajo Nation has had a higher per-capita infection rate than any state but can't

adequately care for the sick, thanks to years of federal underfunding and neglect of its healthcare system. Decades of segregated housing, pollution, lack of access to medical care, and

poverty have left communities of color vulnerable to the worst of this virus, and the worst of America. 3. IF WE CAN AFFORD TO BAIL OUT CORPORATIONS AND WALL STREET, WE SURE AS HELL CAN

AFFORD TO HELP PEOPLE. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell continues to insist we can't "afford" $2,000 COVID survival checks for Americans. But the latest coronavirus

relief legislation doled out over $220 billion to powerful business interests that could instead have been used to help struggling working families. Another way of looking at it: The total

cost of providing those $2,000 checks ($465 billion) is less than half the amount America's 651 billionaires added to their wealth during the pandemic ($1 trillion). 4. HEALTH CARE MUST

BE MADE A RIGHT IN AMERICA. Even before the pandemic, an estimated 28 million Americans lacked health insurance. After it struck, an additional 15 million lost employer-provided coverage

because they lost their jobs. Without insurance, a hospital stay to treat COVID-19 cost as much as $73,000. Remember this the next time you hear pundits saying Medicare for All is too

radical. 5. OUR SOCIAL SAFETY NETS ARE WOEFULLY BROKEN. No other advanced nation was as unprepared for the pandemic as was the United States. Our unemployment insurance system is over 80

years old, designed for a different America. We're one of the few countries in the world that doesn't provide all workers some form of paid sick leave. Other industrialized nations

kept their unemployment rates low by guaranteeing paychecks during the pandemic. But Americans who filed for unemployment benefits often got nothing or received them weeks or months late.

Under new legislation they get just $300 a week of extra benefits to tide them over. 6. THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE MUST BE ABOLISHED Biden won 7 million more popular votes than Trump. But

Biden's margin in Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin totaled just 45,000. Had Trump won these three states instead, he would have gained 37 more electoral votes, tying Biden in the

electoral college. Under the Constitution, this would have pushed the election to the House of Representatives, with each state delegation getting just one vote. Even though Democrats have a

majority in the House, more state delegations have Republican majorities. Trump would have been reelected. The gap between the popular and electoral college vote continues to widen. The

Electoral College is an increasingly dangerous anachronism. 7. GOVERNMENT MATTERS. For decades, conservatives have told us that government is the problem and that we should let the free

market run its course. Rubbish. If nothing else, 2020 has shown that the unfettered free market won't save us. After 40 years of Reaganism, it's never been clearer: Government is

in fact necessary to protect the public. It's tragic that it took a pandemic, near-record unemployment, millions of people taking to the streets, and a near-calamitous election for many

to grasp how broken, racist, and backwards our system really is. Biggest lesson of all: It must be fixed. _Robert B. Reich is an American political commentator, professor and author. He

served in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. Reich's latest book, _The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It_, is out now._ _The views

expressed in this article are the writer's own._