The asian countries by and large did better because they don't view every decision through a narrow economic lens. They simply understand that the health of the

The asian countries by and large did better because they don't view every decision through a narrow economic lens. They simply understand that the health of their population is the ground upon which everything else is built. US/West has been taken over by paperclip maximizers, thats all. The landlords want to maximize paperclips, so no rent relief for small businesses. The politicians see this and decide shutting down would be catastrophic, instead of questioning the premise. Like it is literally inconceivable to me how retarded modern capitalism is. You need a 5-6 week shutdown on businesses, so force rent to be waived for that period. Thats most of the fixed cost, and the employees being on leavetakes care of the variable cost. The businesses don't go bankrupt, everyone just takes a 6 week vacation and comes back like nothing happened. You need ICUs/equipment - take over hotels and make it happen. Instead, they are worried about getting congress approval to pass a bill to pay the hotel owners leasing costs during a global emergency. In the face of a million deaths, the paperclip maximizers can only see all the lost paperclips.