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Comment by pengaru | Hacker News Reader

It does seem kind of karmic through the lens of NIMBY older folks have been making it impossible for younger generations to buy/build homes near them, and now they want the young whipper snappers to care about their welfare.

Maybe the best way to become a home owner in SF in the near future is to run around infecting everyone there ASAP.

(In case it's not obvious, I'm mostly kidding)

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> Maybe the best way to become a home owner in SF in the near future is to run around infecting everyone there ASAP.

Maybe this outbreak is the first of more to come and that this is actually a wake-up call that we shouldn't be glorifying or desiring residence in such densely populated areas like we have been.

People comparing it to the flu do have one thing right. This will likely be a new ever-present thing in our lives with rapid mutation and seasonal outbreaks. USUALLY these things get less deadly over time due to evolutionary pressures. It will be interesting to see if this has lasting impacts on our social norms and, like you mentioned, desire for high density living.

Edit: I just looked this up and MERS is still around as well. 2019 had 212 confirmed worldwide cases.

Epidemiology: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_East_respiratory_syndro...

This is from 2015: https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-33042036/south-korea-...

It frustrates me so much that almost no one gets this.

I know you're joking but there could easily be a great shift in voting patterns if this pandemic reaches deeply enough into older populations[1], presuming older voters generally vote conservative. But even for someone like Joe Biden it could mean a big change since apparently [2] his base is older voters as well.

[1] https://www.axios.com/2020-election-youth-vote-gen-z-895c7c4...

[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/11/20/older-vot...

It would mean far more than just changes in real estate, although younger folks would still have to get out and vote.

Of course it's terrible to say, but it might help the USA with social security payments.

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