Absolutely. I agree. Production of remedies is just as important as non-production of non-essential industries. The fewer people there are out and about, the better off we are during this pandemic. The fact that there's been so little direct aid to people directly impacted is baffling to me. Corporations don't need money to sustain themselves. That's classical neocon supply-side thinking at work. We're in a situation where demand-side thinking and stimulus is critical.
If nothing else, I have a foolish hope that this pandemic will force us to reexamine our way of life and alter it to be more community-centric and relax our competitiveness. There's no reason life has to move at the speed it does. There's no reason the workweek needs to be 40 hours. There's no reason parents can't spend more time with their children and all people can have more leisure and unstructured playtime.
And finally, I 100% agree. I have little faith in most corporations that are doing things that shouldn't be scarce goods - such as medical care and pharmaceuticals. Relying on them to deliver us through this disaster is foolish. Their incentive is _not_ on getting us through this. It's on delivering shareholder value and right now, they're delivering all kinds of value since they're in higher demand. We should view it as a failing when private industry is our only hope of deliverance from a disaster.
If nothing else, I have a foolish hope that this pandemic will force us to reexamine our way of life and alter it to be more community-centric and relax our competitiveness. There's no reason life has to move at the speed it does. There's no reason the workweek needs to be 40 hours. There's no reason parents can't spend more time with their children and all people can have more leisure and unstructured playtime.
And finally, I 100% agree. I have little faith in most corporations that are doing things that shouldn't be scarce goods - such as medical care and pharmaceuticals. Relying on them to deliver us through this disaster is foolish. Their incentive is _not_ on getting us through this. It's on delivering shareholder value and right now, they're delivering all kinds of value since they're in higher demand. We should view it as a failing when private industry is our only hope of deliverance from a disaster.