- 03 Apr 2020 15:33
#15081309
Science tells people a lot of things they don't want to hear.
Shooting the messenger is a thoroughly human response. One that is encouraged by those that stand to benefit, you know, oil companies and such. Now that social media has gotten weaponised, they are quite good at it.
No human institution is without problems. The corruption that is rotting the country is pretty much everywhere.
Bitching is also human nature. A decade ago, in the last economic crisis, people were ragging on economists constantly. Macroeconomist and historian Brad DeLong had a point, "When did anyone ever listen to macroeconomists?" It's true, I bring up Stiglitz all the time, but it's a waste of time.
Back in the 90s, we were warned that we weren't ready for a pandemic on the scale of the 1918 flu (or worse). While some modest reforms were developed, the basics, like surge capacity (like ventilators) didn't happen. Sure, we got the emergency stockpile, but that's close to empty now. Even worse, the contract to maintain those ventilators expired, and the Trump crowd didn't bother to make a new contract. So much winning, eh?
This points to a larger problem. If you ever see a thread titled 'Enlightenment on trial', that will be where I discuss it. There is war on reason.
One 'tell' is when reforms do not get discussed. Tighter regulation of drug companies, regs requiring much greater levels of transparency, these are not new proposals.
But as the rich have gotten more powerful, the influence of science and ethical concerns has declined proportionally. Which is something Stiglitz has talked about extensively.
The only candidate that got serious about that was Warren. Which will tell you how far we are from the sorts of reforms that would reverse some of the decay we've seen since 1980. (Some was there before then, but that was when the crazy really took hold)
Curiouser and curiouser.
Shooting the messenger is a thoroughly human response. One that is encouraged by those that stand to benefit, you know, oil companies and such. Now that social media has gotten weaponised, they are quite good at it.
No human institution is without problems. The corruption that is rotting the country is pretty much everywhere.
Bitching is also human nature. A decade ago, in the last economic crisis, people were ragging on economists constantly. Macroeconomist and historian Brad DeLong had a point, "When did anyone ever listen to macroeconomists?" It's true, I bring up Stiglitz all the time, but it's a waste of time.
Back in the 90s, we were warned that we weren't ready for a pandemic on the scale of the 1918 flu (or worse). While some modest reforms were developed, the basics, like surge capacity (like ventilators) didn't happen. Sure, we got the emergency stockpile, but that's close to empty now. Even worse, the contract to maintain those ventilators expired, and the Trump crowd didn't bother to make a new contract. So much winning, eh?
This points to a larger problem. If you ever see a thread titled 'Enlightenment on trial', that will be where I discuss it. There is war on reason.
One 'tell' is when reforms do not get discussed. Tighter regulation of drug companies, regs requiring much greater levels of transparency, these are not new proposals.
But as the rich have gotten more powerful, the influence of science and ethical concerns has declined proportionally. Which is something Stiglitz has talked about extensively.
The only candidate that got serious about that was Warren. Which will tell you how far we are from the sorts of reforms that would reverse some of the decay we've seen since 1980. (Some was there before then, but that was when the crazy really took hold)
Curiouser and curiouser.
Facts have a well known liberal bias