The General Covid19 Thread

LT42

jonattonyeah Rights before safety. Hard to get your head around it at times.

jonattonyeah

It’s America.

In San Francisco we allow severely mentally ill people to live in abject squalor because the Federal laws around involuntary treatment are so stringent. Oh that’s nice let’s allow this poor fellow to wallow in his own shit because freedom and personal right. These people cannot take care of themselves yet we are required to ask them if they can. The subjective over the objective is going to be the end of this place.

LT42

jonattonyeah Or let a swat team put 50 holes in him before he even knows what time of day it is.
The behaviour of the US over the last few years just confirms its no better than any of the banana republics out there. Capitalism is rotting it from the inside out and that gap between rich and poor isn’t going to slow down either. It has to properly implode at some point, maybe not in our lifetime but it’s inevitable.

Mad_Cyril

LT42 Capitalism is rotting it from the inside out and that gap between rich and poor isn’t going to slow down either. It has to properly implode at some point, maybe not in our lifetime but it’s inevitable.

Naively, I thought Trump might light the touch paper when he was threatening to strongarm the protesters.

Predictably its turned into the usual scenario where social media wankstains dissolve the impetus because they’re too self obsessed to see the bigger picture.

C_J

LT42 The problem with the US is not capitalism. It is almost universally accepted that capitalism is a force for good. Capitalism is the reason why many millions of Americans have long and healthy lives and why millions of migrants flock there.

The problem is actually lack of capitalism. When corrupt politicians get rich off the people or when corporations collude to rip off the public or contaminate the environment, or when wealth doesn’t flow through to certain communities or when police choke out perps - these are the dark recesses of society from which the light of properly regulated capitalism has been obscured.

Homegrove

From monday bars and restaurantsin Finland allowed to be full to 75 % capacity, serving until 1 AM, and to close at 2 PM. The situation permitting all restrictions will be lifted on 13th of July. Except for the limit of 500 people max, which will be lifted at the start of August, should the situation permit it. About 4 new daily cases now.

Nice.

Mad_Cyril

Good news Hannu.

Just need to stopnot being brought back in.

Hint: 1h17min mixes are ideal for selling to bars with restricted capacity 😉

Homegrove

Mad_Cyril I’m not taking any gigs this year. I have day job, and manage just fine. I have a few friends who depend on the extra income, and I’d hate to be in the way of that.

Smallman1

Am still being responsible and respectful.

Playing the long game on this one.

Kells77

I’m happy that I can work fully remote for my job, and that there aren’t any discussions right now about bringing people back into the office. My team lives all over the US and one even in Toronto, so that’s asking people to do a lot of traveling right now. I’m glad it’s not even a thought yet.

Jules72

Korea, China, Singapore all struggling to contain their own outbreaks… can you imagine what it will be like when Winter comes to the Land of Hope and Glory, and they’re all doing the conga up and down the block? The reason aforementioned countries will eventually contain these outbreaks is because either they have heavy handed authorities (China, Singapore) or they have citizens that give a shit (Korea)

bosstrabs

Jules72 There is also a high pressure of public shame/loss of face in East Asia. I feel I can comment on this with some experience having lived there. The pressure of conformity is such that in even an open multiparty democracy like South Korea, the average citizen would wear a mask if that’s what the majority does and expects and would actually feel deep shame being seen out in public without one (compare that to Britain and the US where no such compulsion to avoid being apart from the crowd exists). So it’s relatively easy to get people to follow orders such as those.

Hursty

Jules72 Does anyone think that a time will come if this persists whereby a decision will be made to save the masses rather than the few?
If this goes on and on the amount of families that will endure severe hardship and poverty across the world due to the economic situation will be catastrophic and tough calls will need to be made surely.

Smallman1

bosstrabs There is also a high pressure of public shame/loss of face in East Asia. I feel I can comment on this with some experience having lived there. The pressure of conformity is such that in even an open multiparty democracy like South Korea, the average citizen would wear a mask if that’s what the majority does and expects and would actually feel deep shame being seen out in public without one (compare that to Britain and the US where no such compulsion to avoid being apart from the crowd exists). So it’s relatively easy to get people to follow orders such as those.

I can’t work out if I’m tired or bored after reading this.

Think it’s a combination of both.

Jules72

Hursty Don’t think anyone is expecting more national lockdowns (local ones likely though) - we are going to have to live with the virus.

Did anyone see the government is now saying the tracing app may only be available near the end of the year? So utterly incompetent.. or was that world class!?

C_J

I think the Johnson government have already realised that mate. Opening non-essential shops and reducing the minimum distance.

90% of the dead were in the 75-90 club with at least one pre-existing condition but there is far more consumer appetite for dramatic footage of ICUs full of medics with their names scrawled on their garbs holding the power of life and death in their hands than there is for abstract discussions of the long-term economic consequences.

don’t get me wrong, those doctors are being put through unimaginable hell and every person they save is truly and profoundly worth the trouble.

but yeah. it’s a nuanced and knotty problem.

LT42

C_J but isn’t US capitalism’s whole model based on keeping the poor down so the rich get richer? (Or at least its morphed into that). And using the poor workforce to keep that model moving? Plenty of evidence to show the system is decrepit and although it might work for some, it’s a cancer that has diluted cultures all over the planet leading to wars and shocking poverty. I can’t see how we need more of it if I’m honest. Unchecked greed is not a healthy system. I’ve heard the argument before how it leads to innovation etc etc but it’s out of balance in 2020.

Oh and just to add, migrants flocking to the US to see if they can jump on the American Dream is a fanciful notion from the 1950s. It isn’t the same country it was and although they may be safe from marauding warlords or tyrannical regimes, the large majority still live close to the poverty line.

303abuser

LT42 i think the key is in cj’s last sentence: regulated capitalism. corporations have clearly demonstrated that when given the choice of doing the right thing for society or increasing profits, the latter will always take precedence over the former, often to the detriment of society. hybrid capitalist/socialist systems seem to be the way to go as i see it.

LT42

How do you regulate capitalism properly in the US? Isn’t that a paradox?

303abuser

LT42 i think it could be done if the will was there. it’s not though, which leads back to my assertion that the only way things will change there is when people get desperate enough to force change. and that won’t be pretty if it ever happens.

zackster

LT42 you can’t regulate capitalism anywhere. It is designed to fail.

Smallman1

I used to read informative posts and now I don’t.

Why?

This one long drone of a relentless scroll.

Feels like a breathless diatribe where all nuance gets lost.

A design / layout fault.

303abuser

Smallman1 seems like the issue is yours, the discussion and board layout are just fine.

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