Although Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that American workers are "thriving" during his presidency, this contention rings hollow.  Even in the years before the coronavirus pandemic, when Trump claimed he had created "the greatest economy in history," that economy left American workers with low wages, high death rates, widespread child labor, large-scale employment discrimination, long hours, and weak union representation.

Although few Americans seem to have noticed, China and the United States are currently on a collision course -- one that could easily lead to war.  Their dispute, which has reached the level of military confrontation, is over control of the South China Sea, a vast, island-studded region containing a major maritime trade route and rich in oil, natural gas, and lucrative fishing areas.  Both nations would be well-served by backing away from their dangerous military buildups and leaving the job of sorting out the issues to the United Nations. 

Americans who grew up with nightmares of nuclear explosions should get ready for some terrifying flashbacks, for the Trump administration and its Republican enablers in Congress seem to be preparing to revive U.S. nuclear weapons tests, which were halted in 1992.  This action, designed to intimidate U.S. rivals, would ignore treaty commitments and world opinion, encourage other nations to resume or begin nuclear testing, and pollute the environment with deadly radioactivity.

Currently, the world is facing onrushing catastrophes, including the coronavirus pandemic, an environmental collapse, and an increasing danger of nuclear war.  And even if these disastrous developments fail to snuff out the human race, plenty of mass misery can be expected from rising economic and social inequality around the globe.  But, over the course of history, human beings have been able to alter their behavior and institutions.  So it's possible that they will rouse themselves and do so again.

Although a disease pandemic continues to plague the United States, a large portion of the economy has collapsed, unemployment has reached the catastrophic levels of the Great Depression, and the nation is torn by upheaval over racism, President Trump's top priority remains "winning" an arms race with other countries.  This is reflected not only in his proposed federal budget, which earmarks most discretionary spending for the military, but in his strong support for weapons programs costing trillions of dollars and his scrapping of nuclear arms control treaties.

Nearly seven decades ago, New York City established a Civilian Complaint Review Board -- a pioneering effort to curb policy brutality, especially against racial minority groups.  But it has not been as effective as it could have been, for the police and their friends in high places sabotaged its work.  

Although most Americans currently face rising death and economic collapse, the nation's super-rich remain a notable exception.  With their immense fortunes growing dramatically and their health safeguarded by privileges that great wealth provides, they are able to continue the lifestyle to which they are accustomed, including sojourns in their many mansions, travels on their lavish superyachts, and journeys to safe hideaways on their superjets.   

Although farmworkers produce the food that we need for survival, they have been terribly mistreated over the course of American history.  And that remains true during the current coronavirus pandemic.

If human beings behaved rationally, they would recognize the coronavirus as their common enemy and act accordingly.  After all, why not work cooperatively to save humanity from massive global death and economic collapse rather than continue to devote $1.8 trillion a year to waging wars and engaging in vast military buildups with the goal of slaughtering one another?

We live with a profound paradox.  Our lives are powerfully affected by worldwide economic, communications, transportation, food supply, and entertainment systems.  Yet we continue an outdated faith in the nation-state, with all the divisiveness, competition, and helplessness that faith produces when dealing with planetary problems.