[malandrew]

That's nuts. The federal government at this point has done far more harm than good.

Organizations that provide testing (public or private) should have just coordinated directly with the WHO on how to do those tests and just busted their butts to keep up with demand, which doctors deciding directly who to test and when. We'd have far more testing being done if we have just let markets do their thing.

[cmurf]

It's not about markets vs government. It's about competency versus incompetency. South Korea has far more testing than about any country, it's not due to letting markets do their thing. It's due to competency: they had an imagination for this situation, from experience, and had a plan to deal with it, should it happen again. We have examples of authoritarian and democratic governments, some do the right thing, some do the wrong thing.

[malandrew]

With markets, you have an opportunity to discover and reward competency. With government, you have all your eggs in one basket and if that basket isn't competent, you're shit out of luck.

[cmurf]

With markets, you have an opportunity to discover conglomeration and monopolies who reward themselves. With government, you have elections, and if that doesn't work, well maybe you have an incompetent society, and all you have is luck.