Google, with their enormous warchest of money could be providing free test kits for everyone, not developing some chinch web site locator that could be built in an afternoon by a single developer.
They have clearly seized upon the moment for PR.
They have clearly seized upon the moment for PR.
How much abundance would we have without the federal government?
- Schools: The US department of Education contributed 8% of all funding to the entire public school system of the US in 2012-13. (source: https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/fed/role.html)
- Roads: "The Congressional Budget Office estimates that Highway Trust Fund tax revenue will total $41 billion in fiscal year 2018" (source: https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/what-highway-t...)
- Internet: Not only was the internet created by the Department of the Defense in the 1960's and 70's (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet#History) It's expansion is also subsidized by the FCC (source: https://www.fcc.gov/consumer-governmental-affairs/about-bure...)
- Mortgages: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac provide important stabilization and support to the mortgage industry. (source: https://www.fhfa.gov/SupervisionRegulation/FannieMaeandFredd...)
In the US, central authority substantially impeded pandemic response. Both out of apathy (substantially defunding and deprioritizing support in 2018) and selfishly, with key CDC officials acting on behalf of the executive to suppress key information and decline assistant from other countries (and the WHO) who have better testing infrastructure.
We only discovered the Seattle COVID-19 outbreak because a (heroic, imo) doctor decided to destroy red tape that was blocking her from doing important work [0]. The US has been refusing to evaluate South Korea's current treatment method [1] which is clearly saving lives.
More in my camp, the notion of enforcing borders is hurting us more than protecting us in a lot of cases. E.g., border control chokepoints in airports are creating infection hotzones that are going to do much more harm than good. Great job loading everyone with a nascent infection and then sending them out into society with no possibility of tracing where they got it, customs! Way to do exactly the opposite of whatyou wanted to do! [2]
Even more ridiculous is how currently US IP law, a longtime foil, is being used to hold up giving Chinese citizens access to potentially very effective antiviral drugs because Gliead is afraid China will undercut them. [3] Sure the world is on the brink of a global economic collapse and in the worst case a few percentage points of the global population could die and the majority of people living could see their lifespans shortened due to complicatons, but yeah let's worry about that quarterly stock price and IP law.
Libertarianism in America is rife with contradictions and racist buffoons, but right now I think there is a lot of positive things to be said about decentrialized and anti-authoritarian societies. It's certainly hard to imagine them doing worse than our current government.
[0]: https://reason.com/2020/03/11/how-government-red-tape-stymie...
[1]: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2020/03/12/South-Kor...
[2]: https://twitter.com/StevenDialFox4/status/123899199815520665...
[3]: https://sfist.com/2020/02/06/bay-area-based-gilead-donates-e...
I'm actually a big fan of a Stateless, decentralized society. But you can't reach that place just by Galting your way there. You need at least a modern city to go with you.
How, exactly, would they manufacture that many tests? If the idea is that they pay Roche to manufacture the tests, then we're right back to the problem we have right now. Presumably, Roche cannot manufacture them fast enough. I can tell you that right now a lot of hospitals are just praying that the promise of 500 000 being available "next week" comes to fruition. (And 500,000 is not that many, but it's a start.) Putting out even 10,000,000 is just beyond our capabilities right now. the 50,000,000 to 100,000,000 it would take to make it at least seem like enough for "everybody" is just fanciful thinking at the moment.
People and companies should volunteer to do things we actually have a chance in hell of accomplishing. Promising the impossible at a time like this, knowing full well you can't deliver, only deepens the crisis. Especially if people would be counting on you to deliver.