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“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 unders

“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.

“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.