Comment Re:Get A Handle On These (Score 1) 11
Thanks. I'll add John Keane's book to my list.
Like your "current truth in America", BTW
Like your "current truth in America", BTW
How do you account for places like NY that apparently report that anyone who dies with COVID-19 died because of COVID-19, even the guy who committed suicide? And then how do you account for places that say "if you died at home without previously testing positive, then you didn't die of COVID-19?"
I didn't. Like Sam Harris, I let the statistics do the work. But since you asked vague, derisive and misleading gibberish, let me respond accordingly.
1st, Even though COVID-19's fatality rate is substantially lower than than the MERS outbreaks, which killed 23% of those infected, COVID-19 has already killed more people because it's transmitted much, much faster.
2nd, COVID-19 is more prone to kill when the infected are old, or have chronic diseases like asthma, diabetes, obesity, hypertension, cardiovascular or lung diseases. It's harder for them to survive, plain and simple. In the United States, the death certificate would attribute the COD as "COVID-19", and perhaps add contributing factors. I believe one of the main reasons the general population is denied adequate COVID-19 testing is to callously keep the infected COD numbers down.
3rd, a nurse working at the New York-Presbyterian Allen Hospital committed suicide after recovering from COVID-19 and going back to work. There is no evidence that her infection was the reason. However, there are reports of an infected Italian nurse killing herself over fears she spread the disease. There's no doubt about it: the medical profession is encountering a nightmare, and nurses are on the bleeding edge of that nightmare-turned-reality.
All media work us over completely. They are so pervasive in their personal, political, economic, aesthetic, psychological, moral, ethical, and social consequences, they leave no part of us untouched, unaffected, unaltered.
...the man is a psychopath.
As Cyndi Lauper pointed out, money changes everything.
The current tests aren't all that good - too many false results. They're just a psychological balm that make people more comfortable about going to work, which, in turn, would allay fears of stockholders.
Just thinking...
If a worker tests positive, what would Amazon do? Fire the infected, and maybe the coworkers too? Then maybe they'd cordon off the exposed areas, or even close the whole place down for a few days to sterile it.
But if/when things get back to "normal", COVID-19 comes back to work and does it all over again.
A lack of understanding is making the crisis worse, not better. Maybe all this fog of uncertain, incomplete, dubious, and erroneous information is produced and/or exacerbated on purpose. That way the decisions made by those in charge won't be seen clearly for what they really are.
Right now, Jeff Bezos is trying to figure out how to get his people back to work. Eventually, his biggest problem may be how to keep the death toll from affecting the bottom line. Talk about a new low.
Isn't rampant consumption the problem not the consequence?
Depends.
The problem now is a pandemic, and our responses to it have had the consequence of spurring a rampant worldwide financial crisis, massive unemployment, hunger, and homelessness.
As usual, the risky basic research is being done at public expense, and the safe investment is made by the private company to keep the majority of profits for themselves.
And we wonder why a growing percentage of Americans live in poverty.
We Privatize the Profits and Socialize the Losses - Losses Such as the Cost of Research.
Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich said America is a hotbed for socialism, but for the rich and not the poor. "It's socialism for the rich. Everyone else is treated to harsh capitalism."
In the 2007-2010 Great Recession, the government subsidized weak and failing firms, and the taxpayer pays the tab. It's called "Lemon Socialism."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemon_socialism
Fair Warning: the following is what occupies my alleged mind at the moment.
The COVID-19 pandemic will bring about 'Lemon Socialism' on a scale never seen before. But this Supply Side Economics tactic won't work this time - the unemployed on the demand side are becoming too impoverished, unstable and desperate to buy even the things they need, much less pick up Wall Street's tab..
Mark Blythe calls this a "Crisis Of Consumption" - people need to be able to feed/support themselves and their families. He says the government should support consumption. "... and the best way to do that is to use the existing structure of wages, and you basically say to the employer, 'Keep paying these people', and then you say to the banks that backs the employers, 'We've got your back', and you feed the public money into the banking system the wages."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWDx3nKm_Gc
I think it's a great idea. The banks, businesses and the workers gets subsidized, and the economy stays afloat. If I heard Blythe right, that's the plan in the UK and elsewhere in Europe. But on this side of the pond, we're not going to stay afloat this maelstrom.
The Great Depression started in 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s, and was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century. What's happening now could become a lot worse.
The one day you'd sell your soul for something, souls are a glut.
