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by saidajigumi 2296 days ago
> we’d be figuring out how to temporarily suspend rent, loan payments, and taxes

This. Under society-wide crisis, it's madness that the economic impact is supposed to just stop at landlords, moneylenders, etc. There are instances where individual organizations are trying to do the right thing, but the only humane thing to do is spread the impact (and recovery measures) across everyone.
1 comments
gwright 2296 days ago
> it's madness that the economic impact is supposed to just stop at landlords, moneylenders, etc.

Who is advocating this position that you think is "madness"? This is an evolving situation that individuals, local, state, and national officials are figuring out as we go along. There is no consensus on any of this and the response needs to be (and actually is) distributed not centralized, IMHO.

Never mind the fact that the huge difficulty with this situation is that the ultimate impact is unknown at this point. How many people will need to be hospitalized? What treatment plans will be discovered? What is the impact of putting the economy on life-support for weeks? Will social distancing be enough to stop the spread?

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zackmorris 2295 days ago
May I ask your age? You sound a bit young. The things you talk about are well-within the purview of the government.

If this were happening in the 1980s, I think that we would have kept our calm better. I was a child then, and my grandparents were in their 50s/60s and had seen the Great Depression and World War II. My parents' generation (the boomers) were full of well-trained doctors and nurses. There was a general level of competence and a willingness to give of oneself then that I believe was higher than today, even though we have more access to information now.

What I'm saying is that we need central solutions. Scientists and medical experts should be directing this. Like they used to, before several decades of being undermined by political and religious dogma.

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gwright 2295 days ago
Not young at all. Your belief in the wisdom of centralized groups of "experts", is historical naive and dangerous.

Note. I'm pretty much poking fun at the idea of things being centralized and driven top down. Not at the notion of "experts"

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burfog 2286 days ago
You're a bit young to really remember the Soviet Union. I'll fill you in, a bit.

They used central solutions. Scientists and other experts directed the economy. Without the signalling mechanism of price, demand and supply got way out of whack. The economy collapsed.

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