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The underlying message is simple. Willingness to do the work, make hard decisions, and be productive, leads to success. A history of success without that unde

by btilly 7y ago

The underlying message is simple. Willingness to do the work, make hard decisions, and be productive, leads to success. A history of success without that underlying willingness, leads to failure. The West got where it was by being on the winning side of that equation, but has lost it. Taiwan is on the winning side of that equation. The first example was the rise of Compaq (in the West) when it had that willingness, followed by its fall when it didn't. And the rise of other companies in Taiwan that were willing to do the actual work. The second example is coronavirus, where Taiwan's current success stands in stark contrast with the unwillingness of western countries to even consider taking effective action. Taiwan shows what it is possible. The USA can only consider which tragedy to choose. And has gone about it so badly that it is effectively choosing both.

rob74 7y ago
I guess Taiwan's inherent mistrust of China helped in making the right decisions - while the thoughts of politicians in the West were something along the lines of "China is saying it has things under control, the WHO is saying the same, so there is no need for drastic actions right now - and if it turns out later that we were wrong, we can shift the blame to China and the WHO".
- robocat 7y ago
  Even after China’s (self?)deception became uncovered, most countries still didn’t act effectively, or (even more bizarre) performed their own form of denial. Wasting many weeks of runway, then suddenly discovering an emergency due to lack of foresight. Many citizens knew what was happening, yet somehow our political organisations failed us.
- rjzzleep 7y ago
  People still blame their own failures on China? In January China was already pumping out article after article on what to do what's happening, who gets sick etc. And the US and Europe were still twiddling their thumbs, the only two countries that reacted right away were Taiwan and Russia. China enacted an export ban on surgical masks and Europeans and Americans were still busy exporting masks to China for a profit. End of January all the pharmacies in Berlin were already out of mask supplies and so were the wholesalers. Yet the German health ministry went on TV saying that all this shows how well Germany is prepared. Go on and keep blaming China for this clusterfuck, but the reality is that the the thing that made this situation explode were the illusions of grandure most governments have. The Iranian health ministry went on TV to tell everyone how great they are. Trump was telling people to go work to become healthy. The severity of the outbreak is directly correlated to the level of narcicism of the countries leaders.
  - MR4D 7y ago
    Interesting that the PP got downvoted. While many people blame China (and yes, they made some dumb decisions), most of what I see in the above post is technically correct. For instance, despite having a 2,600 mile border with China, Russia has about the same Covid-19 stats as Iceland. My gut tells me that their decision to close their border early had a huge impact. So yeah, China deserves a lot of blame, but we in the west did not make it any better. The Italian “Hug a Chinese” event in Florence was particularly stupid, and many have paid for it with their lives.
tguedes 7y ago
> And has gone about it so badly that it is effectively choosing both. This is my fear. We are taking half-measures. So instead of an extreme spike of cases that is short-lived or "flattening the curve", we are instead going to take the middle route of a prolonged stress on our health care system and economy.
dmix 7y ago
I've always wondered what role downturns play in stirring up innovation. If the goal of our monetary policy is always to minimize any sort of downturn, especially one that props up all pet entrenched businesses/industry, will we always lose out in the long run? It seems humans are at their best when faced with adversity, which is why being new, raw, and unproven always helps create the best, even in media like music and films. The second wave of good stuff usually comes when an artist again feels 'disrespected' or has some inhuman innate drive to always be better and reach new heights. I'm coming around to the idea that in downturns we should be protecting people, not businesses. Businesses will naturally have a safety net if their employees and founders have a safety net in their own lives.

by btilly 7y ago

rob74 7y ago

I guess Taiwan's inherent mistrust of China helped in making the right decisions - while the thoughts of politicians in the West were something along the lines of "China is saying it has things under control, the WHO is saying the same, so there is no need for drastic actions right now - and if it turns out later that we were wrong, we can shift the blame to China and the WHO".

robocat 7y ago
Even after China’s (self?)deception became uncovered, most countries still didn’t act effectively, or (even more bizarre) performed their own form of denial. Wasting many weeks of runway, then suddenly discovering an emergency due to lack of foresight. Many citizens knew what was happening, yet somehow our political organisations failed us.
rjzzleep 7y ago
People still blame their own failures on China? In January China was already pumping out article after article on what to do what's happening, who gets sick etc. And the US and Europe were still twiddling their thumbs, the only two countries that reacted right away were Taiwan and Russia. China enacted an export ban on surgical masks and Europeans and Americans were still busy exporting masks to China for a profit. End of January all the pharmacies in Berlin were already out of mask supplies and so were the wholesalers. Yet the German health ministry went on TV saying that all this shows how well Germany is prepared. Go on and keep blaming China for this clusterfuck, but the reality is that the the thing that made this situation explode were the illusions of grandure most governments have. The Iranian health ministry went on TV to tell everyone how great they are. Trump was telling people to go work to become healthy. The severity of the outbreak is directly correlated to the level of narcicism of the countries leaders.
- MR4D 7y ago
  Interesting that the PP got downvoted. While many people blame China (and yes, they made some dumb decisions), most of what I see in the above post is technically correct. For instance, despite having a 2,600 mile border with China, Russia has about the same Covid-19 stats as Iceland. My gut tells me that their decision to close their border early had a huge impact. So yeah, China deserves a lot of blame, but we in the west did not make it any better. The Italian “Hug a Chinese” event in Florence was particularly stupid, and many have paid for it with their lives.

tguedes 7y ago

> And has gone about it so badly that it is effectively choosing both. This is my fear. We are taking half-measures. So instead of an extreme spike of cases that is short-lived or "flattening the curve", we are instead going to take the middle route of a prolonged stress on our health care system and economy.

dmix 7y ago

I've always wondered what role downturns play in stirring up innovation. If the goal of our monetary policy is always to minimize any sort of downturn, especially one that props up all pet entrenched businesses/industry, will we always lose out in the long run? It seems humans are at their best when faced with adversity, which is why being new, raw, and unproven always helps create the best, even in media like music and films. The second wave of good stuff usually comes when an artist again feels 'disrespected' or has some inhuman innate drive to always be better and reach new heights. I'm coming around to the idea that in downturns we should be protecting people, not businesses. Businesses will naturally have a safety net if their employees and founders have a safety net in their own lives.