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Maybe I'm naive or overly optimistic, but I suspect that COVID-19 presents a big enough scare to motivate legislators and voters to fix these problems in the ne

Maybe I'm naive or overly optimistic, but I suspect that COVID-19 presents a big enough scare to motivate legislators and voters to fix these problems in the near future.

mtsr 7y ago
In a zero-based budgetting system, maybe. But given that any opponents will just present such a change as a huge additional expense and very much big government, do you really expect it to get much support?
- jurassic 7y ago
  When the first of the 535 members of Congress succumb to the virus, I think it will be pretty motivational for the survivors to enact policy change. The median age of serving Senators is ~66, so if a non-trivial proportion are infected I think we can expect a lot of deaths.
- wyldfire 7y ago
  Some incarnation of "paid sick leave" is likely to emerge [1], though I'm a little pessimistic -- probably would have a sunset clause. POTUS tiptoed around this yesterday: "We're also going to be talking about hourly wage earners getting help so that they can be in a position where they're not going to ever miss a paycheck." IIUC "Paid sick leave" maybe via tax credit or some other subsidy. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/10/upshot/coronavirus-paid-sick-leave.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/10/upshot/coronavirus-paid-s...
rolph 7y ago
considering most legislators are in a high risk group i would think so.
Redoubts 7y ago
Not with reports like this on the air it won’t https://twitter.com/ndrew_lawrence/status/1237174846355841024?s=21 https://twitter.com/ndrew_lawrence/status/123717484635584102...
cryptoz 7y ago
I've interacted with 4-5 potential voters (people) in the US in the last 2 days, talking about this topic. 100% of them think the virus is a hoax, since the president and media said so, and that it's meant to "distract" the population. These are just random people in 7-eleven or whatever. At least for now, the 'scare' that people talk about is how controlling the media is and how "this whole virus-thing" is a hoax. It seems many legislators and those in the executive branch share this view, are calling it a hoax and suggesting that the virus is a political creation meant to hurt the stock markets and prevent the president from being re-elected.
- malandrew 7y ago
  When that many people think it's a hoax, that's a symptom you're observing of people crying wolf too often. We have a mainstream media credibility crisis because clickbait journalism presents far too many issues as needlessly apocalyptic and journalists are too wrapped up in advocacy instead of just presenting unfiltered facts.
  - lgleason 7y ago
    This is exactly my thought as well.
lern_too_spel 7y ago
Only if the right politicians are directly affected. The infected individual at CPAC could end up being the unsung hero of pandemic preparedness in the United States.

Maybe I'm naive or overly optimistic, but I suspect that COVID-19 presents a big enough scare to motivate legislators and voters to fix these problems in the near future.

mtsr 7y ago

In a zero-based budgetting system, maybe. But given that any opponents will just present such a change as a huge additional expense and very much big government, do you really expect it to get much support?

jurassic 7y ago
When the first of the 535 members of Congress succumb to the virus, I think it will be pretty motivational for the survivors to enact policy change. The median age of serving Senators is ~66, so if a non-trivial proportion are infected I think we can expect a lot of deaths.
wyldfire 7y ago
Some incarnation of "paid sick leave" is likely to emerge [1], though I'm a little pessimistic -- probably would have a sunset clause. POTUS tiptoed around this yesterday: "We're also going to be talking about hourly wage earners getting help so that they can be in a position where they're not going to ever miss a paycheck." IIUC "Paid sick leave" maybe via tax credit or some other subsidy. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/10/upshot/coronavirus-paid-sick-leave.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/10/upshot/coronavirus-paid-s...

rolph 7y ago

considering most legislators are in a high risk group i would think so.

Redoubts 7y ago

Not with reports like this on the air it won’t https://twitter.com/ndrew_lawrence/status/1237174846355841024?s=21 https://twitter.com/ndrew_lawrence/status/123717484635584102...

cryptoz 7y ago

I've interacted with 4-5 potential voters (people) in the US in the last 2 days, talking about this topic. 100% of them think the virus is a hoax, since the president and media said so, and that it's meant to "distract" the population. These are just random people in 7-eleven or whatever. At least for now, the 'scare' that people talk about is how controlling the media is and how "this whole virus-thing" is a hoax. It seems many legislators and those in the executive branch share this view, are calling it a hoax and suggesting that the virus is a political creation meant to hurt the stock markets and prevent the president from being re-elected.

malandrew 7y ago
When that many people think it's a hoax, that's a symptom you're observing of people crying wolf too often. We have a mainstream media credibility crisis because clickbait journalism presents far too many issues as needlessly apocalyptic and journalists are too wrapped up in advocacy instead of just presenting unfiltered facts.
- lgleason 7y ago
  This is exactly my thought as well.

lern_too_spel 7y ago

Only if the right politicians are directly affected. The infected individual at CPAC could end up being the unsung hero of pandemic preparedness in the United States.