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Bill Gates says we can’t restart the economy soon and simply ignore dead bodies

17 points by zekrioca 7y ago

notRobot 7y ago
Full title: Bill Gates says we can’t restart the economy soon and simply “ignore that pile of bodies over in the corner”
- zekrioca 7y ago
  It is more than maximum number of characters
  - notRobot 7y ago
    Hence me including it in the comment.
thedudeabides5 7y ago
And then what was once an academic discussion (how many lives would you spend for a unit of GDP)....becomes a real decision we need to make as a society.
sslayer 7y ago
Bill Gates isn't poor and doesn't have to worry about where his next meal for his kids come from. People will move on, the dead can rest, the poor can not.
- quietthrow 7y ago
  Bill gates benefits more from the economy starting that not. As you say he is not poor and hence he doesn’t need to take any stance. He can be quiet and feed his kids. He is saying what he is saying to bring some sense to this society as a person who has seen the devastating effects of not taking measures to containing an epidemic. We have leaders that absolutely should be removed from office as if we don’t do that This can disintegrate into anarchy. Also, What’s your plan ? open the economy, earn money to feed your child who might get sick or worse you may get sick and die and then they are whose responsibility? And as for the old people let them die? Who needs them?? I would suggest you Channel your frustration to making your govt act on helping the poor people and stop worrying about the incumbents relection.
  - grej 7y ago
    You’re presenting it as if it’s a binary choice. It’s not strictly binary, and creating a “one or the other“ straw man to pretend it is binary so that you can grandstand is counterproductive. Further, there’s absolutely nothing in his comment that remotely hints about worrying about the incumbents reelection. There is, however, in your comment a statement that the current leaders should be removed from office. Straw man argument, and projection...
    - quietthrow 7y ago
      It dosnt take much to understand thst the only thing this unfit for office leader has going for him was the inflated economy. He understands better than anybody thst he can get away with anything so long as the economy is pumped and roaring. No matter how corrosive he his to the system and democracy he can get his way due to the economy. Corona messed thst up. And if he can’t get the economy back up he has zero chance. And that’s what all the actions around economy are. Doctors and nurses needs masks and hospitals need ventilators first. I am not saying economy is not important. But in this instance there are other first higher priorities and economy is second (and not 3rd or bottom of the stack). However when economy is the first priority despite advice from experts in the field it’s quite easy to see the intentions.
mardifoufs 7y ago
I like Bill Gates but I find it a little distasteful to see extremely rich people who will not be affected in any way by the economic fallout of this telling everyone else that we need to sacrifice the economy because it's the right thing to do. For the majority of people who will have to pay that price and go through a recession that could be the worst ever with nothing left, what's right isn't necessarily the same. We are facing the prospects of a second great depression, and I personally don't want my generation to become the second Lost Generation. I'm not saying that we shouldn't have put in place the containment/lock down measures, but that it is absolutely necessary to keep the economy in mind. my concern is more about how long we can keep this up. What price is too much? And do current leaders really have the younger generations in mind?
- quietthrow 7y ago
  Simply put first comes health then comes wealth. The other way around dosnt work. The problem is your leaders are putting wealth first and health may be second at best. At worse it’s wealth first , re-election second everything else will take care of itself -with “love and protection”. If you don’t want to be the lost generation change your leaders before its to late.
- carapace 7y ago
  Gates' money doesn't disbar him from expressing common decency. No one's going to starve. The water and power will continue to flow. The factories and trucks are not destroyed. The topsoil isn't blowing away (Dust Bowl reference that.) So really the only damage is people and paperwork. Let's save the people.
  - mardifoufs 7y ago
    Economic output isn't just paperwork. It may seem to be just pushing papers for now, but thats because we're only 2 weeks in. All of what we have now is because of the fully functional economy we used to have. I'm all for what the FED is doing right now, but it's just a stop gap. You just can't print your way into actual economic output. there's a reason why we don't just always "push papers" instead of working. Human decency won't be enough to keep hospitals and supply chains running.Again, for a short while everything will keep working but that's an illusion. All of that can look abstract for us since we can mostly work from home and don't get to see the gears that make everything work from our tech jobs. But those gears are still very real. And even remote tech workers will eventually get hit by the impacts of a prolonged shutdown. Also, It's not that bill gates can't have an opinion on this, it's just that he is very obviously not going to be impacted by what he's preaching. Misery for them, because we need to save lives, but not for me.

17 points by zekrioca 7y ago

Full title: Bill Gates says we can’t restart the economy soon and simply “ignore that pile of bodies over in the corner”

zekrioca 7y ago
It is more than maximum number of characters
- notRobot 7y ago
  Hence me including it in the comment.

thedudeabides5 7y ago

And then what was once an academic discussion (how many lives would you spend for a unit of GDP)....becomes a real decision we need to make as a society.

sslayer 7y ago

Bill Gates isn't poor and doesn't have to worry about where his next meal for his kids come from. People will move on, the dead can rest, the poor can not.

quietthrow 7y ago
Bill gates benefits more from the economy starting that not. As you say he is not poor and hence he doesn’t need to take any stance. He can be quiet and feed his kids. He is saying what he is saying to bring some sense to this society as a person who has seen the devastating effects of not taking measures to containing an epidemic. We have leaders that absolutely should be removed from office as if we don’t do that This can disintegrate into anarchy. Also, What’s your plan ? open the economy, earn money to feed your child who might get sick or worse you may get sick and die and then they are whose responsibility? And as for the old people let them die? Who needs them?? I would suggest you Channel your frustration to making your govt act on helping the poor people and stop worrying about the incumbents relection.
- grej 7y ago
  You’re presenting it as if it’s a binary choice. It’s not strictly binary, and creating a “one or the other“ straw man to pretend it is binary so that you can grandstand is counterproductive. Further, there’s absolutely nothing in his comment that remotely hints about worrying about the incumbents reelection. There is, however, in your comment a statement that the current leaders should be removed from office. Straw man argument, and projection...
  - quietthrow 7y ago
    It dosnt take much to understand thst the only thing this unfit for office leader has going for him was the inflated economy. He understands better than anybody thst he can get away with anything so long as the economy is pumped and roaring. No matter how corrosive he his to the system and democracy he can get his way due to the economy. Corona messed thst up. And if he can’t get the economy back up he has zero chance. And that’s what all the actions around economy are. Doctors and nurses needs masks and hospitals need ventilators first. I am not saying economy is not important. But in this instance there are other first higher priorities and economy is second (and not 3rd or bottom of the stack). However when economy is the first priority despite advice from experts in the field it’s quite easy to see the intentions.

mardifoufs 7y ago

I like Bill Gates but I find it a little distasteful to see extremely rich people who will not be affected in any way by the economic fallout of this telling everyone else that we need to sacrifice the economy because it's the right thing to do. For the majority of people who will have to pay that price and go through a recession that could be the worst ever with nothing left, what's right isn't necessarily the same. We are facing the prospects of a second great depression, and I personally don't want my generation to become the second Lost Generation. I'm not saying that we shouldn't have put in place the containment/lock down measures, but that it is absolutely necessary to keep the economy in mind. my concern is more about how long we can keep this up. What price is too much? And do current leaders really have the younger generations in mind?

quietthrow 7y ago
Simply put first comes health then comes wealth. The other way around dosnt work. The problem is your leaders are putting wealth first and health may be second at best. At worse it’s wealth first , re-election second everything else will take care of itself -with “love and protection”. If you don’t want to be the lost generation change your leaders before its to late.
carapace 7y ago
Gates' money doesn't disbar him from expressing common decency. No one's going to starve. The water and power will continue to flow. The factories and trucks are not destroyed. The topsoil isn't blowing away (Dust Bowl reference that.) So really the only damage is people and paperwork. Let's save the people.
- mardifoufs 7y ago
  Economic output isn't just paperwork. It may seem to be just pushing papers for now, but thats because we're only 2 weeks in. All of what we have now is because of the fully functional economy we used to have. I'm all for what the FED is doing right now, but it's just a stop gap. You just can't print your way into actual economic output. there's a reason why we don't just always "push papers" instead of working. Human decency won't be enough to keep hospitals and supply chains running.Again, for a short while everything will keep working but that's an illusion. All of that can look abstract for us since we can mostly work from home and don't get to see the gears that make everything work from our tech jobs. But those gears are still very real. And even remote tech workers will eventually get hit by the impacts of a prolonged shutdown. Also, It's not that bill gates can't have an opinion on this, it's just that he is very obviously not going to be impacted by what he's preaching. Misery for them, because we need to save lives, but not for me.