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To some extent, this is by design. The inaction of liberal western democracies is because it is ambiguous as it what should be done. Yes, this leads to stagnati

To some extent, this is by design. The inaction of liberal western democracies is because it is ambiguous as it what should be done. Yes, this leads to stagnation, but also minimizes massive mistakes. When it becomes clear what needs to be done western democracies can spring into action, such as with, as the author pointed out, the pandemic. Look at Russia - The government, but more specifically Putin, just set the country back 20-30 years with one bad decision. China is on a hot streak, but the same could happen to them. What happens when Xi looses his mind? Or dies? Or when the economy takes a prolonged downturn? Democracies win over the long term because they bet small and lose small. Libraries aren’t being built because, A. We already have a lot of them in the west, and B. Typically they begin as part of a major philanthropic gift but right now our philanthropist class is focused on eradicating diseases and going to space.

eternityforest 5y ago
Getting involved in a war, trade war, or campaign of human rights abuse is a completely separate category from, say, spending 100 billion on some project. You might upset the economy a bit. Maybe someone will call you an idiot. But at any rate you made some jobs and nobody died. Nobody is going to demand sanctions unless someone is being badly abused. We did not spring into action with the pandemic. The only thing we did was make the vaccine, and we can't even keep up with the variants with that. If we really "Sprang into action" we would have small thermal cameras in our phones by now that would warn us of fevers. We would have grates in the floor making a constant downward airflow, and vents blowing HEPA air in the ceiling in major public spaces. Cashiers would have barriers and small filters making walls of clean air indefinitely, not just "Till the worst of the pandemic is over" It would be such a big industry they'd have advertising projections on the acrylic. Busses would have the same thing. We would have "Trying to get your employees to work sick" become a 10 year sentence kind of felony. We'd have subsidized masks that actually do something, with battery powered fans. We don't do these things because we accept infectious disease as part of life, and there's basically no interest in actually stopping it with any kind of sustainable long term technical evolution like we did with sanitary sewers. It seems the current system is considered good enough.
- sokoloff 5y ago
  It seems fairly unreasonable to suggest that it was a mistake to not or that it would be reasonable to have retrofitted all public buildings to have underfloor (sometimes underground) HVAC ducting added. Think about the typical large slab-on-grade grocery store, Target, Home Depot, Walmart, etc., which is the majority of the places I’ve had to go in the last two years. Given where we are with COVID, that seems like it would have been a massively wasteful over-reaction.
  - bckr 5y ago
    > Think about the typical large slab-on-grade grocery store You can raise the floor, just like you can drop the ceiling. > that seems like it would have been a massively wasteful over-reaction At least this person has some creative ideas for saving lives and actually evolving our society, so that we don't lose a million people to the next airborne virus, which I have little reason to believe won't happen next time.
    - sokoloff 5y ago
      Could we have built raised floors in all the grocery stores and big box stores while simultaneously serving the needs of a country in pandemic in two years? That seems beyond optimistic.
      - bckr 5y ago
        We're not talking about perpetual motion engines. I think you've demonstrated the above commenter's point that > there's basically no interest in actually stopping it with any kind of sustainable long term technical evolution I for one am not looking forward to the next killer airborne virus.
bllguo 5y ago
this is overly reductive. the post didnt ask why we aren't building more libraries, it's asking whether we would build them today if they didn't exist. just like it's not ambiguous that libraries are a net positive, it's not ambiguous whether we need more housing and infrastructure. it's not ambiguous that we should deal with climate change. the inaction is not because of ambiguity, it's because we are unwilling to make short-term sacrifices. it's because there is no shared belief in a greater good. these are the kinds of decisions that were, for whatever reason, more easily made in the past than now. Look at the New Deal.
- etempleton 5y ago
  I don’t think the ambiguity is what the challenges are, but how to solve the problems. And yes, we are unwilling to make sacrifices until the effects are already being strongly felt. This is not a good thing, just a reality of democracy not in chaos. Climate change is a good one. The threat is real. It is at the door, but unfortunately democracies and capitalism will not really react until it is kicking the door down. Europe avoided the Hitler problem until they invaded. US avoided Hitler and Japan until Pearl Harbor. I am agreeing with the author. Democracies need to be stoked into action. Other forms of government are more likely to act quickly, but perhaps rashly. That is my point.

eternityforest 5y ago

Getting involved in a war, trade war, or campaign of human rights abuse is a completely separate category from, say, spending 100 billion on some project. You might upset the economy a bit. Maybe someone will call you an idiot. But at any rate you made some jobs and nobody died. Nobody is going to demand sanctions unless someone is being badly abused. We did not spring into action with the pandemic. The only thing we did was make the vaccine, and we can't even keep up with the variants with that. If we really "Sprang into action" we would have small thermal cameras in our phones by now that would warn us of fevers. We would have grates in the floor making a constant downward airflow, and vents blowing HEPA air in the ceiling in major public spaces. Cashiers would have barriers and small filters making walls of clean air indefinitely, not just "Till the worst of the pandemic is over" It would be such a big industry they'd have advertising projections on the acrylic. Busses would have the same thing. We would have "Trying to get your employees to work sick" become a 10 year sentence kind of felony. We'd have subsidized masks that actually do something, with battery powered fans. We don't do these things because we accept infectious disease as part of life, and there's basically no interest in actually stopping it with any kind of sustainable long term technical evolution like we did with sanitary sewers. It seems the current system is considered good enough.

sokoloff 5y ago
It seems fairly unreasonable to suggest that it was a mistake to not or that it would be reasonable to have retrofitted all public buildings to have underfloor (sometimes underground) HVAC ducting added. Think about the typical large slab-on-grade grocery store, Target, Home Depot, Walmart, etc., which is the majority of the places I’ve had to go in the last two years. Given where we are with COVID, that seems like it would have been a massively wasteful over-reaction.
- bckr 5y ago
  > Think about the typical large slab-on-grade grocery store You can raise the floor, just like you can drop the ceiling. > that seems like it would have been a massively wasteful over-reaction At least this person has some creative ideas for saving lives and actually evolving our society, so that we don't lose a million people to the next airborne virus, which I have little reason to believe won't happen next time.
  - sokoloff 5y ago
    Could we have built raised floors in all the grocery stores and big box stores while simultaneously serving the needs of a country in pandemic in two years? That seems beyond optimistic.
    - bckr 5y ago
      We're not talking about perpetual motion engines. I think you've demonstrated the above commenter's point that > there's basically no interest in actually stopping it with any kind of sustainable long term technical evolution I for one am not looking forward to the next killer airborne virus.

bllguo 5y ago

this is overly reductive. the post didnt ask why we aren't building more libraries, it's asking whether we would build them today if they didn't exist. just like it's not ambiguous that libraries are a net positive, it's not ambiguous whether we need more housing and infrastructure. it's not ambiguous that we should deal with climate change. the inaction is not because of ambiguity, it's because we are unwilling to make short-term sacrifices. it's because there is no shared belief in a greater good. these are the kinds of decisions that were, for whatever reason, more easily made in the past than now. Look at the New Deal.

etempleton 5y ago
I don’t think the ambiguity is what the challenges are, but how to solve the problems. And yes, we are unwilling to make sacrifices until the effects are already being strongly felt. This is not a good thing, just a reality of democracy not in chaos. Climate change is a good one. The threat is real. It is at the door, but unfortunately democracies and capitalism will not really react until it is kicking the door down. Europe avoided the Hitler problem until they invaded. US avoided Hitler and Japan until Pearl Harbor. I am agreeing with the author. Democracies need to be stoked into action. Other forms of government are more likely to act quickly, but perhaps rashly. That is my point.