Thursday, April 16, 2020
Corollaries of simplicity
I wanted to leave previous item SIMPLE and harsh.
Here are a couple of corollaries.
1. The simple choice isn't even an XOR, an exclusive either-or. It's not a choice between saving the expected-to-die crowd VERSUS saving everyone else. The lockdowns have eliminated normal medical care, so many of the expected-to-die crowd will die of their existing problems whether they get the Branded Flu or not. Some hospitals and medical practices are closing permanently, so the expecteds are going to die faster from now on.
2. And it's not just the closed hospitals. The stress and uncertainty are also killing more of the expecteds, along with everyone else. Confidence and normalcy and sleep and good diet are crucial for survival, especially for oldies. I'm 70 and mentally strong, with solid knowledge of REAL immunity and REAL public health, but avoiding the panic is GODDAMNED HARD WORK.
3. This ties into a broad question I've been asking ever since the 2008 TARP coup. What happened to insurers? Insurance companies are big and rich, with lots of lobbyists and influence in state and federal government. In previous decades insurers used their bully power to improve real public health and real safety, especially with consumer products and automobiles.
They should have lobbied hard against ZIRP in 2008, because it would clearly and obviously ruin them. (Along with a lot of oldies.) But they didn't.
Now the actuaries should have been lobbying hard against the lockdowns, because actuaries understand EXPECTED TO DIE better than anyone else. They also understand the perfectly predictable consequences of shutting down the whole fucking economy. But they didn't.
Labels: coot-proofing, Jackboot stomping forever
¶ 6:56 AM
