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Comment by wbronitsky | Hacker News Reader

How bad is it for all these "old people" if they are dead?

It would be really nice to hear compassion instead of worry about money. How about we keep people alive, then deal with the economy? Something tells me the country that can burn $2T in less than a week will be just fine until this passes. Talking about the long term health of the economy in terms that push people out into unsafe situations, when we have a virus that kills people in 3 weeks, borders on evil.

There is one way to solve the virus problem: social isolation. There are infinite ways to solve made up economic problems we foist on ourselves.

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>How bad is it for all these "old people" if they are dead? It would be really nice to hear compassion instead of worry about money.

Economic factors should absolutely be taken into account. Money pays for life saving medication and treatments. Tax money from the economy pays for social medicine.

For example, 280,000 EXTRA people died from cancer between 2008-2010 in the OCED. When you consider heart disease, other indications, and the rest of the world, you are talking millions of lives.

Far more people could easily die from the economic fallout in the US than the virus.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6...

Small tidbit but the Federal Reserve, which I assume is what you refer to with the statement around $2T, is a private central Bank. It is not public and it is not affiliated with the US Government or what we would typically consider a “government bailout.”

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EDIT: as expanded on below my main intent behind the Federal Reserve <> Government affiliation remark is that the Feds decisioning and repro market fund pumping is not government affiliated.

Not affiliated with the federal government? You do know about the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 don't you? Member banks are required to buy stock in their district Federal Reserve Bank and keep a certain amount of money on "reserve" at the Fed as set by the Governors. The Fed Board of Governors is appointed by the president and confirmed by the senate.

My larger intent behind the affiliation remark was "The Fed pumps $1.5T into overnight repro markets" is not a Government action and it is not government money - and theoretically all decisioning Fed decisioning is to be 100% apolitical. These outrageous figures that individuals are conflating with "Wall Street Bailouts" are not government affiliated and are not government funds.

Its board is appointed by the President, so you can't really say it isn't affiliated with the government to some degree.

You can see my reply to the above commenter. I do agree the Fed is affiliated - my intent here was that the Feds action in the repro markets, however, is not.

Might want to check your info; nobody "burned $2T". That was a loan.

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