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the strange anti-vax angle of the article aside that others have pointed to, having spent my time almost equally between western Europe and East-Asia (mostly fo

the strange anti-vax angle of the article aside that others have pointed to, having spent my time almost equally between western Europe and East-Asia (mostly for family related reasons) I just can't wrap my head around how people think the poor suffer from an excess of 'bio-authoritarianism'. The poor don't care about authoritarianism. They care about having jobs, people coming into their stores, and their children going to daycare. The poor suffer when the state does not function and does not do its job. Countries like China, both Taiwan and the mainland, Singapore, Vietnam even New Zealand and a few others avoided much harm to the poor by means of crushing the disease. They avoided both economic and disease burden by taking strong measures that anyone in Western Europe would have flinched about. (and then I had to live through anyway during three different lockdowns in Europe after live in China returned to normal in summer 2020.) Vaccine passports suck but not because they're too authoritarian but because they're not authoritarian enough. They're half measures done by governments that were too indecisive to go all the way, at the expense of the most vulnerable in society. Reading an anti-vax article afraid of authoritarianism after a crisis caused by weak and dysfunctional governance is like some sort of comedy. As if someone wrote an article in 2010 arguing the financial crisis harmed the poor because we regulated the financial sector too heavily or something

curryst 5y ago
Regulations like this can often be sidestepped; for the right amount of money. I'm sure there are private airlines that don't care about your vaccine status. Abortion is much the same. People with money can fly to a state that allows abortions; the poor cannot. So on and so forth. > Countries like China, both Taiwan and the mainland, Singapore, Vietnam even New Zealand and a few others avoided much harm to the poor by means of crushing the disease. The rural poor were likely fine. I do think there's an uneven impact of self-isolation for the urban poor, though. Wealthy people have more space, meaning more options for things you can do inside and less clashes over personal space. They're also more likely to live in an area where they can get to a green space without violating a curfew. How much would someone have to pay you to self-isolate for a year in an apartment in the bottom 10% of rents in your city?

curryst 5y ago

Regulations like this can often be sidestepped; for the right amount of money. I'm sure there are private airlines that don't care about your vaccine status. Abortion is much the same. People with money can fly to a state that allows abortions; the poor cannot. So on and so forth. > Countries like China, both Taiwan and the mainland, Singapore, Vietnam even New Zealand and a few others avoided much harm to the poor by means of crushing the disease. The rural poor were likely fine. I do think there's an uneven impact of self-isolation for the urban poor, though. Wealthy people have more space, meaning more options for things you can do inside and less clashes over personal space. They're also more likely to live in an area where they can get to a green space without violating a curfew. How much would someone have to pay you to self-isolate for a year in an apartment in the bottom 10% of rents in your city?