For the past year, politics in the United States has been shuffled into a zero-sum game of either wrangling the coronavirus pandemic or keeping the economy healthy and strong. Almost as the virus began raging, various pundits and officials started weighing up exactly how much mass death they’d be willing to accept for the sake of continued profit. By November, voters had cleaved themselves into two camps based on these two seemingly separate ambitions, with each major party’s presidential candidate centering their pitch around one or the other.

The truth is, this was a false choice, and it still is. In the real world, the economic response is the pandemic response, and vice versa.

Even the most stalwart voices of unfettered capitalism have urged bold economic measures in the face of the ongoing pandemic. Early on, the Financial Times editorial board called for “radical reforms,” including “a more active role in the economy” for governments, redistribution in the form of “basic income and wealth taxes,” and the strengthening of labor rights and investment in public services.