The coronavirus pandemic is the last nail in the coffin of the “end of history” belief, which was predicted by Francis Fukuyama as late as the early 1990s. The idea that free markets and rampant and unchecked individualism would reign supreme has now been fundamentally challenged.
Before the coronavirus, the idea that free markets, liberalism, and unchecked individualism would reign supreme — the line of thought that dominated the early 1990s — was already being reevaluated.
Now, the epidemic has raised massive fears concerning not only human health, but also the state of the economy. Governments are introducing restrictions meant to protect us from the epidemiological crisis, but also introduced huge stimulus packages meant to protect us against an economic crisis.
Merely a few decades ago, such packages would be regarded as socialist or even communist.
Although the first economy-saving packages from 2008 had broken the neoliberal taboo, it seems that the current situation will now completely bury that taboo.
