4 ms·

Pfizer is reporting that they have vaccine doses ready that nobody is picking up. Besides, I personally don’t believe the free market is capable of telling stat

Pfizer is reporting that they have vaccine doses ready that nobody is picking up. Besides, I personally don’t believe the free market is capable of telling states what to do or even knows what would be the most efficient way to distribute the vaccines.

loceng 6y ago
Right, I remember seeing that headline - that's due to the Trump administration's incompetence and/or treason; can't do much about that except correct the system, break apart the duopoly and the power of what has become the limited players in mainstream media; Andrew Yang's Journalism Dollars and Democracy Dollars both would help counter this adequately, along with his UBI/Freedom Dividend policy and Ranked Choice Voting - 4 simple policies, along with government option for healthcare - would powerfully shift the system immediately, and put the US on an exponential path again, without so much friction, allowing thriving for everyone; the buying power of "$1,000"/month increases exponentially as we automate more and more processes. Edit to add: Sorry about lazy people downvoting you, whenever I talk about Bitcoin - pro-Bitcoiners don't qualitatively engage, just a quick hit of dopamine satisfies them and suppresses contrarian thoughts that aren't financially incentivized like their Bitcoin propaganda and behaviour is.
vorpalhex 6y ago
> I personally don’t believe the free market is capable of telling states what to do States, as functional governmental bodies, are supposed to be able to handle this. The free market is a tool and it's a good tool for some things like maximizing vaccine production. It's not the best tool for things like resource distribution when those resources need to be distributed at a loss - we literally want to spend money to fix this and it's ok to be less efficient on the cost side if it leads to better immunity.
- IgorPartola 6y ago
  Let's make this simpler and more accessible. You are the CEO of Google you wake up on March 1, 2020 and realize that a malware worm is spreading across your servers, damaging systems and in some cases even the hardware. The long term impact on the systems that are infected and later recovered is unclear but early evidence already suggests it's not good. Do you: (a) Drop everything and concentrate all your resources on containing and eradicating the worm, using all available internal and external methods. (b) Tell each department head that the worm is their problem and continue to pretend that it's business as usual. The subcontractors will figure this out because it's in their best interest to do so. Free market works. If you choose (b) please show your work.
  - Consultant32452 6y ago
    Do you have any evidence that suggests Pfizer is pretending that it's business as usual or is doing anything short of producing and distributing vaccine as fast as they possibly can?
    - IgorPartola 6y ago
      I am making the analogy to the federal government, not Pfizer.
  - lostapathy 6y ago
    The problem with that line of logic is that states are a lot more like contractors than employees - the feds can only exert so much control. And a lot of the states are frankly incapable of taking direction even if they wanted to. These are entities that run DMVs like, well, DMV offices - no amount of oversight/yelling/etc from the feds is going to get new IT systems online at the state level in short order in many states.
    - IgorPartola 6y ago
      That's just incorrect. This isn't an issue of states' rights. This is an issue of e.g. the federal government directly distributing vaccines/PPE/testing supplies to hospitals: something they can absolutely do. Think about it: a hurricane hits Florida. Can FEMA respond? What do you think "national emergency" means?
      - lostapathy 6y ago
        I didn't say anything about states rights - I was speaking to incompetency in state government. I worked for years in state government IT and with a contractor that worked with state IT in most states. Their ability to make and perpetuate messes is almost incomprehensible to the crowd here - it's that bad.
  - vorpalhex 6y ago
    Imagine if you as the CEO actually started ripping servers out of the data center and erasing them! Of course you're supposed to work with your department heads to allow them to run a response - and your departments with 4000 employees are going to handle that task differently than the departments with 40. Even your example is flawed. The United States is not one giant government - it's a collection of smaller governments. The President does not pass laws in Texas or North Dakota. The Fed has no power on internal state matters.
- godtoldmetodoit 6y ago
  Many, if not most, state level public health authorities have been chronically underfunded. States are facing massive budget shortfalls. Congress has given states and cities approximately 0 relief. State and local governments are struggling right now. "Supposed to be able to handle" and "actually able to handle" are two different things.
  - vorpalhex 6y ago
    You realize states are supposed to fund their own public health authorities right? States also collect their own taxes. It's on the state to manage their own budget by passing taxes and limiting expenses.
    - IgorPartola 6y ago
      That's not how the US actually works. The federal government does quite a bit of wealth redistribution from the states that are net producers to states that cannot generate enough revenue on their own: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/economy/2019/03/20/how-much-federal-funding-each-state-receives-government/39202299/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/economy/2019/03/20/how-...
      - vorpalhex 6y ago
        I encourage you to read your own sources: > Money from the federal government is redistributed back to states in the form of grants, aid programs for the needy and payments to major government contracting firms such as defense companies. That isn't open funds, it's earmarked grants and things like foodstamps.
        IgorPartola 6y ago
        So earmarking money for specific programs for testing and PPE and vaccine distribution is possible and quite normal?
        6y ago

loceng 6y ago

Right, I remember seeing that headline - that's due to the Trump administration's incompetence and/or treason; can't do much about that except correct the system, break apart the duopoly and the power of what has become the limited players in mainstream media; Andrew Yang's Journalism Dollars and Democracy Dollars both would help counter this adequately, along with his UBI/Freedom Dividend policy and Ranked Choice Voting - 4 simple policies, along with government option for healthcare - would powerfully shift the system immediately, and put the US on an exponential path again, without so much friction, allowing thriving for everyone; the buying power of "$1,000"/month increases exponentially as we automate more and more processes. Edit to add: Sorry about lazy people downvoting you, whenever I talk about Bitcoin - pro-Bitcoiners don't qualitatively engage, just a quick hit of dopamine satisfies them and suppresses contrarian thoughts that aren't financially incentivized like their Bitcoin propaganda and behaviour is.

vorpalhex 6y ago

> I personally don’t believe the free market is capable of telling states what to do States, as functional governmental bodies, are supposed to be able to handle this. The free market is a tool and it's a good tool for some things like maximizing vaccine production. It's not the best tool for things like resource distribution when those resources need to be distributed at a loss - we literally want to spend money to fix this and it's ok to be less efficient on the cost side if it leads to better immunity.

IgorPartola 6y ago
Let's make this simpler and more accessible. You are the CEO of Google you wake up on March 1, 2020 and realize that a malware worm is spreading across your servers, damaging systems and in some cases even the hardware. The long term impact on the systems that are infected and later recovered is unclear but early evidence already suggests it's not good. Do you: (a) Drop everything and concentrate all your resources on containing and eradicating the worm, using all available internal and external methods. (b) Tell each department head that the worm is their problem and continue to pretend that it's business as usual. The subcontractors will figure this out because it's in their best interest to do so. Free market works. If you choose (b) please show your work.
- Consultant32452 6y ago
  Do you have any evidence that suggests Pfizer is pretending that it's business as usual or is doing anything short of producing and distributing vaccine as fast as they possibly can?
  - IgorPartola 6y ago
    I am making the analogy to the federal government, not Pfizer.
- lostapathy 6y ago
  The problem with that line of logic is that states are a lot more like contractors than employees - the feds can only exert so much control. And a lot of the states are frankly incapable of taking direction even if they wanted to. These are entities that run DMVs like, well, DMV offices - no amount of oversight/yelling/etc from the feds is going to get new IT systems online at the state level in short order in many states.
  - IgorPartola 6y ago
    That's just incorrect. This isn't an issue of states' rights. This is an issue of e.g. the federal government directly distributing vaccines/PPE/testing supplies to hospitals: something they can absolutely do. Think about it: a hurricane hits Florida. Can FEMA respond? What do you think "national emergency" means?
    - lostapathy 6y ago
      I didn't say anything about states rights - I was speaking to incompetency in state government. I worked for years in state government IT and with a contractor that worked with state IT in most states. Their ability to make and perpetuate messes is almost incomprehensible to the crowd here - it's that bad.
- vorpalhex 6y ago
  Imagine if you as the CEO actually started ripping servers out of the data center and erasing them! Of course you're supposed to work with your department heads to allow them to run a response - and your departments with 4000 employees are going to handle that task differently than the departments with 40. Even your example is flawed. The United States is not one giant government - it's a collection of smaller governments. The President does not pass laws in Texas or North Dakota. The Fed has no power on internal state matters.
godtoldmetodoit 6y ago
Many, if not most, state level public health authorities have been chronically underfunded. States are facing massive budget shortfalls. Congress has given states and cities approximately 0 relief. State and local governments are struggling right now. "Supposed to be able to handle" and "actually able to handle" are two different things.
- vorpalhex 6y ago
  You realize states are supposed to fund their own public health authorities right? States also collect their own taxes. It's on the state to manage their own budget by passing taxes and limiting expenses.
  - IgorPartola 6y ago
    That's not how the US actually works. The federal government does quite a bit of wealth redistribution from the states that are net producers to states that cannot generate enough revenue on their own: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/economy/2019/03/20/how-much-federal-funding-each-state-receives-government/39202299/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/economy/2019/03/20/how-...
    - vorpalhex 6y ago
      I encourage you to read your own sources: > Money from the federal government is redistributed back to states in the form of grants, aid programs for the needy and payments to major government contracting firms such as defense companies. That isn't open funds, it's earmarked grants and things like foodstamps.
      - IgorPartola 6y ago
        So earmarking money for specific programs for testing and PPE and vaccine distribution is possible and quite normal?
        6y ago