There’s nothing better to shift our collective perceptions of what’s possible than a major crisis.

During World War II, the severely underregulated economies of the pre–Great Depression era gave way to sweeping state control over industry, full employment, and industrial policy unprecedented in human history. When the global financial sector melted down in 2008, an official Washington typically wedded to deficit fetishism embraced billions in new spending overnight.

Similarly, in a matter of days, the coronavirus pandemic has radically shifted the horizons of what’s possible as the extent of what will be necessary becomes more apparent. Earlier this week, Spain moved to commandeer every private hospital in the country. On Sunday, the Danish government struck a leviathan deal designed to prevent layoffs in the coming months and protect workers affected by the crisis, with the state guaranteeing some 75 percent of wages for workers threatened by job loss. No less a consummately neoliberal figure than French president Emmanuel Macron just announced the suspension of rent, taxes, and utility bills.