5 ms·

Part of the problem is that as human beings, we are awful at assigning credit and blame for hypothetical scenarios. When in the best-case scenario nothing happ

Part of the problem is that as human beings, we are awful at assigning credit and blame for hypothetical scenarios. When in the best-case scenario nothing happens, politicians aren't incentivized to take strong action at the expense of harming the economy. They'll be blamed for the unemployment and harsh actions when "the disease wasn't that bad" – even though it "wasn't that bad" due to the prevention measures taken in the first place. Look at Seattle vs. NYC. NY's Governor Andrew Cuomo has been largely praised for his leadership, but that's purely optics. Had he acted sooner, lives would have been saved. [1] [1] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/05/04/seattles-leaders-let-scientists-take-the-lead-new-yorks-did-not https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/05/04/seattles-leade...

Zigurd 6y ago
The pandemic may also require us to conclude that a free market in health care, and individuals making purportedly rational decisions about the value of their own lives in the context of their economic status is not what should happen in a modern society.
- trentnix 6y ago
  “Our government response to the pandemic was terrible!” ... “If the pandemic may also require us to conclude that we need more government!” I’ll never understand this line of thinking.
  - freeone3000 6y ago
    Okay, let me take a stab at it. Linking health care directly to employment means that people CANNOT take off work if they're sick. This is dangerous in normal times. In a pandemic, this means that businesses shutting down isn't just an economic crisis, it's also a health care crisis. The idea of individual responsibility for group problems, like a pandemic, leads to actors predictably behaving selfishly (staying open, no masks, going to work) -- it's predictable and preventable by socializing the responsibility. And secondarily, because the US government is incompetent and has been for years does not mean that government, in general, is a failure.
  - vharuck 6y ago
    The people currently running the government had a terrible response to the pandemic. I want to replace them with better people. It doesn't mean we shouldn't invest more in local governments and private organizations from this lesson. But I won't resign myself to thinking we can't do better than this administration.
  - pasquinelli 6y ago
    The response to the plague was terrible because apparently the government is unable to do anything useful. "The way we've arranged our society means we have been unable to cope with a plague." ... "We need to arrange our society differently." I'll never understand this line of thinking, because i can't imagine our siciety ever getting better.
  - sfkdjf9j3j 6y ago
    I agree that, based on their pandemic response (among other things), I wouldn't want the people currently running the executive branch to design a new healthcare system for the country. But how does it follow that because one group of people are incompetent, the very concept of government cannot work?
  - GoodJokes 6y ago
    The government response was terrible because there wasn’t enough of it. Does that help.
- pasquinelli 6y ago
  That would make sense but no, there is no alternative to our healthcare system. Our institutions, public and private, are unable to change in response to anything, unable to improve in any capacity that's good.
gotoeleven 6y ago
Is there anyone doing research on the irrational aspects of human nature (the inability to reason about large numbers and small probabilities, the fixation on outliers, hindsight bias, etc) and their intersection with social media? I would be interested to see an analysis of this kind of stuff from a systemic point of view.
- GoodJokes 6y ago
  I think being around since 2000 on social media is enough research to know that irrational behavior is prevalent af.

Zigurd 6y ago

The pandemic may also require us to conclude that a free market in health care, and individuals making purportedly rational decisions about the value of their own lives in the context of their economic status is not what should happen in a modern society.

trentnix 6y ago
“Our government response to the pandemic was terrible!” ... “If the pandemic may also require us to conclude that we need more government!” I’ll never understand this line of thinking.
- freeone3000 6y ago
  Okay, let me take a stab at it. Linking health care directly to employment means that people CANNOT take off work if they're sick. This is dangerous in normal times. In a pandemic, this means that businesses shutting down isn't just an economic crisis, it's also a health care crisis. The idea of individual responsibility for group problems, like a pandemic, leads to actors predictably behaving selfishly (staying open, no masks, going to work) -- it's predictable and preventable by socializing the responsibility. And secondarily, because the US government is incompetent and has been for years does not mean that government, in general, is a failure.
- vharuck 6y ago
  The people currently running the government had a terrible response to the pandemic. I want to replace them with better people. It doesn't mean we shouldn't invest more in local governments and private organizations from this lesson. But I won't resign myself to thinking we can't do better than this administration.
- pasquinelli 6y ago
  The response to the plague was terrible because apparently the government is unable to do anything useful. "The way we've arranged our society means we have been unable to cope with a plague." ... "We need to arrange our society differently." I'll never understand this line of thinking, because i can't imagine our siciety ever getting better.
- sfkdjf9j3j 6y ago
  I agree that, based on their pandemic response (among other things), I wouldn't want the people currently running the executive branch to design a new healthcare system for the country. But how does it follow that because one group of people are incompetent, the very concept of government cannot work?
- GoodJokes 6y ago
  The government response was terrible because there wasn’t enough of it. Does that help.
pasquinelli 6y ago
That would make sense but no, there is no alternative to our healthcare system. Our institutions, public and private, are unable to change in response to anything, unable to improve in any capacity that's good.

gotoeleven 6y ago

Is there anyone doing research on the irrational aspects of human nature (the inability to reason about large numbers and small probabilities, the fixation on outliers, hindsight bias, etc) and their intersection with social media? I would be interested to see an analysis of this kind of stuff from a systemic point of view.

GoodJokes 6y ago
I think being around since 2000 on social media is enough research to know that irrational behavior is prevalent af.