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Just playing devil's advocate for a little: - The pandemic was initially propagated by consumers of the global air travel industry, and likely would have been

Just playing devil's advocate for a little: - The pandemic was initially propagated by consumers of the global air travel industry, and likely would have been a localized epidemic otherwise. - The police largely exist to protect the assets of the wealthy and preserve the societal structure that enables them to make and store wealth. I don't necessarily agree with much of what this article is saying, but it's good to stretch the mind and read a variety of viewpoints. (otherwise you're only reading things that agree with your biases, which, of course, has issues)

sokoloff 4y ago
Is there any world in which global air travel doesn’t arise but where people are better off overall? I feel like regardless of your method of allocation of resources, people are going to want to go experience other places. If a society isn’t doing any of that, it seems unlikely that it’s because they’re too busy doing other things that are so amazingly compelling that no one desires to travel. The desire for adventure and novelty is not a capitalistic desire, but rather a human one. I can’t therefore conclude that global air travel is “capitalism’s fault” and, as contagious as SARS-COV2 is, a pandemic was virtually assured.
- kqr 4y ago
  I think one of the problems of global air travel is that it has several externalities that are really not felt by its users. This is often tied to capitalism in the sense that it takes a capitalist system for the wealthy to be able to say "I don't care about these externalities and by my possessions I have a right to not care." Not that I think it makes much difference in terms of a pandemic, but maybe if travel patterns had been different the pandemic would have played out differently in turn.
- mLuby 4y ago
  On a high-gravity world with a thin atmosphere it'd be harder to float, fly, or orbit. So high-speed rail and automobiles would be the pinnacle of land transportation with ships being the only way to cross the oceans separating continents. On such a world, a global internet could easily arise before flight. As to whether those inhabitants would be better off than us, I believe that's much more to do with their socio-econo-political systems than their available modes of transportation. Slower vehicles means germs and goods travel slower, and culture too until said internet is built.
  - drewcoo 4y ago
    Ah. I kept thinking "as Costner showed us, things weren't so good in Water World." You bring up good points.

sokoloff 4y ago

Is there any world in which global air travel doesn’t arise but where people are better off overall? I feel like regardless of your method of allocation of resources, people are going to want to go experience other places. If a society isn’t doing any of that, it seems unlikely that it’s because they’re too busy doing other things that are so amazingly compelling that no one desires to travel. The desire for adventure and novelty is not a capitalistic desire, but rather a human one. I can’t therefore conclude that global air travel is “capitalism’s fault” and, as contagious as SARS-COV2 is, a pandemic was virtually assured.

kqr 4y ago
I think one of the problems of global air travel is that it has several externalities that are really not felt by its users. This is often tied to capitalism in the sense that it takes a capitalist system for the wealthy to be able to say "I don't care about these externalities and by my possessions I have a right to not care." Not that I think it makes much difference in terms of a pandemic, but maybe if travel patterns had been different the pandemic would have played out differently in turn.
mLuby 4y ago
On a high-gravity world with a thin atmosphere it'd be harder to float, fly, or orbit. So high-speed rail and automobiles would be the pinnacle of land transportation with ships being the only way to cross the oceans separating continents. On such a world, a global internet could easily arise before flight. As to whether those inhabitants would be better off than us, I believe that's much more to do with their socio-econo-political systems than their available modes of transportation. Slower vehicles means germs and goods travel slower, and culture too until said internet is built.
- drewcoo 4y ago
  Ah. I kept thinking "as Costner showed us, things weren't so good in Water World." You bring up good points.