Conversation

Still can’t believe the official Chinese Covid fatalatity statistics of just over 4634. Even if it’s “only” an order of magnitude off and the real number is 46k it’s still unbelievably good. Hard to believe authoritarian control works that perfectly. Anyone have alt estimates?
21
83
Accepting 100x as high US fatality rate as correct, and factoring out aging population, obesity, I’d like to see a real estimate of “cost of freedom” fatalities vs “cost of trump” fatalities. We’ll never know for sure. I’d guess Trumpism added 20% on top of basic Americanism.
9
33
I do believe the India numbers, currently at 133k. More like China in size and culture, more like US in governance. Accounting for much younger population, I’d say the better performance is entirely a result of the early strict lockdown that they couldn’t keep going long enough.
3
15
Replying to
The game: don't do any work as President. The prize: don't do any work as Pres, earn a fortune, build nego power with creditors. Perhaps not such a stupid game after all. You assume he thinks COVID is something he has to deal with. Nope. Stock boom, tax cuts, rallies, emoluments.
1
Replying to
Also, freedom and equality are inevitably diametrically opposed. Prediction: it's a pendulum, and ~5 years from now will probably be peak freedom. Equality will be enforced by e.g. Jaron Lanier's "digital Maoism," which may not look like Maoism at all, of course.
Replying to
The Game: free to be me. The cowboy way. Every man for themselves. The Prize: pride in one’s own accomplishments. Exoneration from responsibility and guilt about outcomes for others.