Jump to content
Objectivism Online Forum

Correspondence and Coherence blog

Rate this topic


merjet

Recommended Posts

2 hours ago, merjet said:

Coronavirus - Medicare for All

"Taiwan’s healthcare system is more like Medicare-for-All. The mortality rate from COVID-19 is very low, but so is the number of cases per 1,000 population. I can’t explain the latter. The author asserts the existence of “high traffic with mainland China,” an innuendo that Taiwan's exposure to the coronavirus is as high as, maybe higher than, other countries. Anyway, the healthcare system has not faced a stress test similar to Italy, Spain, Switzerland, or even the USA."

Regarding "I can’t explain the latter."

Well, you have to explain it. Taiwan has a huge portion of its population go to mainland china to work and come back. My understanding is the testing they have done. The lack of testing seems to be the common problem for areas that are had hit. And reasons for that can in fact be regulations preventing it or preventing it from being profitable enough.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

25 minutes ago, Easy Truth said:

Regarding "I can’t explain the latter."

Well, you have to explain it. Taiwan has a huge portion of its population go to mainland china to work and come back. My understanding is the testing they have done. The lack of testing seems to be the common problem for areas that are had hit. And reasons for that can in fact be regulations preventing it or preventing it from being profitable enough.

Well, the article I wrote about was published only 2 days ago, and I noticed it last night. So Taiwan wasn't on my radar screen until then and investigating it didn't instantly become my top priority.

Anyway, I found the following news story.
Fear of China Made Taiwan a Coronavirus Success Story

Hope that helps.

Edited by merjet
Link to comment
Share on other sites

More information from 

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/27/scott-gottlieb-coronavirus-new-york-152094

I did not realize that he was considered an alarmist by the white house.

He specifically mentions the temperature element, that we may be having new travel restrictions on South Africa etc.

Interesting mention of use of copper will increase (mentioned around the end)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Merlin Jetton in “Coronavirus - Death of a Campaign”

“It is often said that Bernie Sanders' greatest support comes from young people. They aren't swayed by the common arguments against socialism or the history of socialism when put into practice. Why do they support Sanders, or more accurately, socialism? An audio on this page by Professor Stephen Hicks tries to answer this question. Starting at about 17 minutes Professor Hicks describes several mindsets he has found among young people who consider themselves socialists and the values on which they base their support of socialism. He calls these positions anti-cronyist, altruistic, central-planning, free stuff, communalist, welfare state, environmentalist, and emotionalist. His goal is only to explain, without criticism.

“In an earlier audio Professor Hicks described socialism in theory or put into political practice by eight historical people. Their ideas of socialism are very different from those of modern young people.”

Stephen Boydstun ~

When I was a young socialist, the meaning I had was the abolition of private property, because I could see that that institution allowed people to be selfish. It was not an opposition to capitalism expressly in that I’d scarcely heard of that and wouldn’t have really known anything about what it was. Mine was what Prof. Hicks called altruistic socialism. At the same time, there was an individualism value and democracy value in my set, so I was in favor of civil liberties and democratic process. If I’d seen the position of the American Socialist Norman Thomas, I think I’d have gone for it (and that would have tempered my blanket opposition to private property slightly). I did not have the reasons #1,3,4,5,6,7,8, set out in Hicks' good piece, and I would have found them boring. I do not mean to suggest that my sort of socialism and its reasons was most prevalent in those days (mid-to-late 60’s); I don’t know what variety was most prevalent, although the environmental one was not in play at all, as I recall among young socialists I knew. I do think that in those days, when we declared ourselves to be socialist, we meant something more radical than what can get called that today by those favoring or opposing it.

The arguments Hicks' has found to lack traction with young socialists today would also have gotten no traction with me. Those would be like trying to persuade Leibniz that this is not the best of all possible worlds because of all its badness. You’d need to persuade him that his ideas about God were wrong to get any traction, and similarly you’d need to persuade me as a young socialist that altruism as a moral ideal, indeed as THE moral ideal, was mistaken to get any traction with the young socialist that I was.

I don’t have data, by the way, and I don’t know if there were more young socialists in my young era than in Prof. Hicks' own (later) young era and how the numbers would compare to today.

Edited by Boydstun
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On much less intellectual grounds than Stephen, that youthful pull to the (apparent) idealism of socialism rings a bell and the way I was turning. This feels like how to sort out the world - in effect.  'Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal', my first taste of Objectivism, sprang me away from that. I heard Hicks, and think his identification of main categories are sound, partially or entirely, to new socialists. but one thing missing from his list I notice: 'cosmetic' socialism. The thin cover of the ideology in young minds for being "cool" in one's peers' eyes, as rebellion to parents and 'the establishment'. No doubt, by youngsters who had a comfortable/ prosperous upbringing, who will run a mile when socialism is experienced in reality. 

Edited by whYNOT
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...