4 ms·

Yes, it's a pretty general pattern overall: being prepared for an emergency/catastrophe means that you have to spend resources on resilience instead of spending

Yes, it's a pretty general pattern overall: being prepared for an emergency/catastrophe means that you have to spend resources on resilience instead of spending them on development/making more money. When the catastrophes are rare that means the "prepared" ones are outcompeted by the "lean" ones, and so when a black swan finally arrives, bang, everyone's caught naked in the middle of the night. Looks like a rather typical scenario of a market failure, isn't it? That's why national governments typically have National Emergency Reserves or something like this, but naturally, even they only stockpile really basic and absolutely necessary stuff. Dumbbells ain't one of those things.

Melting_Harps 6y ago
> That's why national governments typically have National Emergency Reserves or something like this, but naturally, even they only stockpile really basic and absolutely necessary stuff. That is a very inaccurate statement when it came to PPE, and how it was handled at even the hospital and Union Rep level where first line workers (mainly nurses) had to resort to make their own from trash bags and such only to be reprimanded, told to STFU, fired in one case one died for their ad-hoc problem solving solutions where Governments failed to provide its medical workers with these 'basic' reserves. 1: https://nypost.com/2020/05/14/nurses-union-fires-potty-mouth-rep-berating-nurse-fighting-for-ppe/ https://nypost.com/2020/05/14/nurses-union-fires-potty-mouth... 2: https://nypost.com/2020/03/25/worker-at-nyc-hospital-where-nurses-wear-trash-bags-as-protection-dies-from-coronavirus/ https://nypost.com/2020/03/25/worker-at-nyc-hospital-where-n... 3: https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2020/04/15/nurse-who-posted-picture-of-wearing-a-trash-bag.html https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2020/04/15/nur...

Melting_Harps 6y ago

> That's why national governments typically have National Emergency Reserves or something like this, but naturally, even they only stockpile really basic and absolutely necessary stuff. That is a very inaccurate statement when it came to PPE, and how it was handled at even the hospital and Union Rep level where first line workers (mainly nurses) had to resort to make their own from trash bags and such only to be reprimanded, told to STFU, fired in one case one died for their ad-hoc problem solving solutions where Governments failed to provide its medical workers with these 'basic' reserves. 1: https://nypost.com/2020/05/14/nurses-union-fires-potty-mouth-rep-berating-nurse-fighting-for-ppe/ https://nypost.com/2020/05/14/nurses-union-fires-potty-mouth... 2: https://nypost.com/2020/03/25/worker-at-nyc-hospital-where-nurses-wear-trash-bags-as-protection-dies-from-coronavirus/ https://nypost.com/2020/03/25/worker-at-nyc-hospital-where-n... 3: https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2020/04/15/nurse-who-posted-picture-of-wearing-a-trash-bag.html https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2020/04/15/nur...