Pick 2 of 3: civil liberties, low tech use, low fatality rate.
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People like to compare China and the west in very abstract, ideological terms, but really I think it boils down to the political feasibility of a *single* tactic: group quarantine. Everything else is pretty much legitimately available within all political systems.
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It would be interesting to apply Dictator’s Handbook lens to this and determine actual extent of power. For example India is nominally a liberal democracy, but Modi probably has tactics available to him that democratically elected leaders generally don’t.
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Venkatesh Rao Retweeted David Steven
This is a good point. I wonder how internal connectivity of China compares to Europe. https://twitter.com/davidsteven/status/1248120867823005696?s=21 …https://twitter.com/davidsteven/status/1248120867823005696 …
Venkatesh Rao added,
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Venkatesh Rao Retweeted Sijan Khan
Another good point. https://twitter.com/sijank524/status/1248123379762298881?s=21 …https://twitter.com/sijank524/status/1248123379762298881 …
Venkatesh Rao added,
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One of the difficult questions is: assuming there really is a “cost of democracy” holding tech-level constant, should you be personally willing to pay it? Can’t honestly answer that without normalizing for your relative safety as a function of class/wealth.
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I’m totally willing to accept a 10x-100x higher fatality rate (on a low base like 0.1- 1%) for higher civil liberties but then I’m not most at risk from poverty, crowding etc. Healthcare workers at least knowingly sign up for a risky profession.
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Replying to @vgr
100X fatality rate on a 1% base? I don't think you mean that...
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Replying to @jfpgaffney
Lol yeah. Meant 100x on 0.1, 10x on 1. So cap of say 10%
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Replying to @vgr
I figured. But the next thing is infection rate. If you have 50% infection and 10% fatality, that is 16.5 million people.
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Yeah, I realize that. My tradeoff is based on severity of civil liberties restrictions under question. 16.5m dead vs North Korea style government? It’s a toss-up. You give up civil liberties you open the doors to things worse than viruses.
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Replying to @vgr
I don't think North Korea is the comp. We are seeing pretty good numbers out of Germany and South Korea, for example.
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