
Bill Gates says we can’t restart the economy soon and simply ignore dead bodies - zekrioca
https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/3/24/21192638/coronavirus-bill-gates-trump-reopen-business
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mardifoufs
I like Bill Gates but I find it a little distasteful to see extremely rich
people who will not be affected in any way by the economic fallout of this
telling everyone else that we need to sacrifice the economy because it's the
_right_ thing to do. For the majority of people who will have to pay that
price and go through a recession that could be the worst ever with nothing
left, what's right isn't necessarily the same. We are facing the prospects of
a second great depression, and I personally don't want my generation to become
the second Lost Generation. I'm not saying that we shouldn't have put in place
the containment/lock down measures, but that it is absolutely necessary to
keep the economy in mind. my concern is more about how long we can keep this
up. What price is too much? And do current leaders really have the younger
generations in mind?

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erentz
How do people have this idea that the economy just goes back to normal? That
somehow you tell people to go back to work and just take the millions of dead
and everybody just salutes and dutifully goes about it like nothing is
happening?

That’s complete fantasy land. I’m flabbergasted at how people are now somehow
proposing this. They simply do not have any conception of what is going on and
how human beings react.

The economy is going to be trashed much worse if we don’t manage this pandemic
and keep the demands on the health system at manageable levels. We can do that
intelligently or clumsily. At the moment we’ve ignored the problem and it has
caused us to be in the situation to be reacting very late. That’s why it’s
hurting so much. But making that worse by going back to pretending it isn’t
happening is not the answer.

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mardifoufs
Sorry but that is not true. The truth is that the majority of the economically
active population is not at risk from dying. I get using outliers as a way to
scare younger people into staying inside, it's for a good cause. But that's
what they are, outliers. The average age of death in Italy is 80 years, most
of the younger people in ICUs have severe pre existing conditions or were
exposed to much higher virus loads (ie health workers). But you just won't get
millions of death, that's a complete exaggeration going by the data we have
right now.

Right now Sweden is isolating people who are vulnerable, which is absolutely
necessary. But people who aren't are free to keep living their daily lives,
because the risks for them aee extremely low. And if they end up needing help
the hospitals won't be overcrowded by the more vulnerable. That's the way to
do it since we now know how non lethal it is for people under 50-60.

Still, I'm not opposed to a short full lock down. The question is for how
long? Let's say you're right. ok. But for how long can we stay inside? At what
point will the virus not be a threat? Months? How could that ever be
sustainable ? We need people who aren't at risk to work to keep people who are
safe.

It's much easier to keep a small proportion of the population isolated while
waiting for a virus and having everyone else working to sustain that isolation
rather than just shut down everything and hope for things to just go away.
Unless there's a clear timeline, this could get catastrophic.

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erentz
It is true. People who think it isn't seem to think the 2% gets culled like
Thanos snaps a finger, without any consequence. It's not quick, it's not
clean, and when the hospitals are overwhelmed it's going to get much more ugly
with all those preventable deaths be much more than 2%. For each patient that
ends up in the ICU and dies there are 4 or 5 more not in the ICU that need
beds and oxygen.

The UK really wanted to do your approach, tried to do it, but has quickly
discovered it wasn't going to be feasible. Its idealistic and doesn't hold up
against the reality.

If you want to avoid lock downs you don't delay in acting. Look to Taiwan and
Korea for guidance there. We have had to lock down because we ignored it and
need to get it under control. We can ease up once it's under control and we
have our act together. All of the focus right now should be on limiting
economic damage with measures like the UK and Denmark are doing, and getting
our act together pronto on how to expand the health system, expand testing,
expand production of necessary equipment and PPE, so on.

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sslayer
Bill Gates isn't poor and doesn't have to worry about where his next meal for
his kids come from. People will move on, the dead can rest, the poor can not.

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quietthrow
Bill gates benefits more from the economy starting that not. As you say he is
not poor and hence he doesn’t need to take any stance. He can be quiet and
feed his kids. He is saying what he is saying to bring some sense to this
society as a person who has seen the devastating effects of not taking
measures to containing an epidemic. We have leaders that absolutely should be
removed from office as if we don’t do that This can disintegrate into anarchy.

Also, What’s your plan ? open the economy, earn money to feed your child who
might get sick or worse you may get sick and die and then they are whose
responsibility? And as for the old people let them die? Who needs them?? I
would suggest you Channel your frustration to making your govt act on helping
the poor people and stop worrying about the incumbents relection.

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grej
You’re presenting it as if it’s a binary choice. It’s not strictly binary, and
creating a “one or the other“ straw man to pretend it is binary so that you
can grandstand is counterproductive.

Further, there’s absolutely nothing in his comment that remotely hints about
worrying about the incumbents reelection. There is, however, in your comment a
statement that the current leaders should be removed from office. Straw man
argument, and projection...

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quietthrow
It dosnt take much to understand thst the only thing this unfit for office
leader has going for him was the inflated economy. He understands better than
anybody thst he can get away with anything so long as the economy is pumped
and roaring. No matter how corrosive he his to the system and democracy he can
get his way due to the economy. Corona messed thst up. And if he can’t get the
economy back up he has zero chance. And that’s what all the actions around
economy are. Doctors and nurses needs masks and hospitals need ventilators
first. I am not saying economy is not important. But in this instance there
are other first higher priorities and economy is second (and not 3rd or bottom
of the stack). However when economy is the first priority despite advice from
experts in the field it’s quite easy to see the intentions.

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thedudeabides5
And then what was once an academic discussion (how many lives would you spend
for a unit of GDP)....becomes a real decision we need to make as a society.

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notRobot
Full title:

Bill Gates says we can’t restart the economy soon and simply “ignore that pile
of bodies over in the corner”

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zekrioca
It is more than maximum number of characters

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notRobot
Hence me including it in the comment.

