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by throwaway_pdp09 2199 days ago
> And that's sort of my point, countries that are willing to act and act quickly (be they communist or capitalist) are faring well and are restarting their economies, ones who's governments have tried to ignore the problem and hope it would go away are doing poorly.

Shocking stuff indeed. You've set the world of epidemiology on fire. What's your point? That in managing a dangerous epidemic communism/authoritarianism does better, or relatively liberal western government styles do better, or that governmental styles are not relevant? Because that was the original question.
2 comments
s1artibartfast 2199 days ago
I think the point is that the attribute most closely aligned with Covid outcome is not liberal-authoritarian, but functional - crippled by political division.
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Taniwha 2199 days ago
No, my point was that decisive governments willing to move quickly who are also able to motivate their populations to move with them (be they capitalist or communist) are doing far better here than governments whose leaders just put their fingers in their ears and tried to ignore the problem.

I lived in the US for 20 years, half my adult life, people there pride themselves in having a national government that is structurally deadlocked and unable to make sudden changes ... while this may be a useful attribute much of the time there are times, and a pandemic is one of them, when the government has to move really quickly - if you've fired all the experts and are more worried that your party's investors will lose money than you are that your voters will die then you get just the wrong sorts of results

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throwaway_pdp09 2199 days ago
> decisive governments

Original question asked if the cap or com governments were intrinsically better at this. You're saying governments that don't screw up are better at it. Yes, but it doesn't answer the original question.

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Taniwha 2198 days ago
It's not so much governments that screw up, it's governments who trust the science, who are decisive and move quickly, and who's populations are willing to follow them - my argument is that it doesn't seem to matter whether they are capitalist of communist - some communist countries have done well (Vietnam, China), as have some capitalist ones (NZ, South Korea, Taiwan, etc).
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