ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates how dominant capital navigates in times of crisis by tracing the trajectory of the differential accumulation and consumption practices of the global billionaires during the Covid-19 pandemic. The chapter focuses on key questions of power and distribution under neoliberalism as central to confronting and moving beyond societies in crisis. The culminative economic impacts of the novel coronavirus are still being realised as the uman toll has so far claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands, and experts warn of consecutive waves of infection. Global working hours have been significantly wiped out, with an expected loss equivalent to 305 mn full-time jobs by the second quarter of 2020. Although billionaires experienced a US$700 mn dip in collective wealth down to US$8 tn at the height of the breakout in March 2020, by April, collective wealth had recalibrated to near pre-COVID figures. The resilience of high capital may be expressed at least in part by the burgeoning fortunes of “pandemic profiteers” who are capturing significant gains in the arenas of global healthcare and online retail. Although some quickly touted the virus “the great leveller” between rich and poor alike, it is evident that dominant capital is riding out a markedly different tide of pandemic—and on a comparably bigger boat. This chapter offers a critical approach to the rise and reproduction of dominant capital within the climate of the pandemic and establishes how dominant capital protects itself materially and ideologically in times of crisis.
