I kind of wonder about this line of thinking. Let's apply it to something else. Right now about 17 million people die from heart disease around the world each year. Let's say a new thing pops up, let's call it disease X, that "is about as deadly as heart disease", meaning it kills an additional 17 million people. Should we be concerned about disease X and try to stop something that doubles what is already a really bad thing? Or because something equally bad already exists then we shouldn't be concerned about something of equal magnitude that adds to the existing death toll by that magnitude? Obviously we'd be concerned, an additional 17 million people are going to die! Why is that statement on heart disease deaths being replicated by something else absurd, but the whole "It's no more deadly then the flu" comparison make sense? At what number of doubling of deaths do we say it's a problem, and at what level do we say "well X people die from (pick a disease) therefore why are we concerned about an additional X people dying?
Im reminded of a joke... Three contractors are bidding to fix a broken fence at the White House. One is from Chicago, another is from Tennessee, and the third is from Minnesota. All three go with a White House official to examine the fence. The Minnesota contractor takes out a tape measure and does some measuring, then works some figures with a pencil. "Well," he says, "I figure the job will run about $900: $400 for materials, $400 for my crew and $100 profit for me." The Tennessee contractor also does some measuring and figuring, then says, "I can do this job for $700: $300 for materials, $300 for my crew and $100 profit for me." The Chicago contractor doesn't measure or figure, but leans over to the White House official and whispers, "$2,700." The official, incredulous, says, "You didn't even measure like the other guys! How did you come up with such a high figure?" The Chicago contractor whispers back, "$1000 for me, $1000 for you, and we hire the guy from Tennessee to fix the fence." "Done!" replies the government official.
1. Republicans really really care about the deficit unless they're in power, and 2. Given that the 2020 US government annual budget is $4.829 trillion - $7B for coronavirus is perfectly appropriate, and 3. You might be lacking a sense of proportion and priority. Go back to the Fed pump in the Repo Market.
%% LOL. I sometimes look for truth-even in a joke. Looks like the TN contractor + Chicago contractor know more about getting the job done than the 7 billion buck'' experts'' [The 7 billion buck ''experts'' were the ones that tried to fix health care. LOL] AS they say in Chicago ; vote early + vote often...……………………………………………………..LOL/true.
Do you call into work when you have the flu? Even if 80% of cases are non-crippling infrastructure could be brought to a grinding halt by a single worker coming to work sick. Who's going to man the power plants? The water stations? Who's going to fix you when coronavirus infects an entire hospital? Moreover, what about the supply chain? America has gone from a producer-exporter to a consumer-importer nation in a few decades. Without cheap labor the supply chain falls apart and businesses suffer. There are very real economic reasons spending huge dollars on this makes sense and it starts with preparing cities and infrastructure for what could be the worst "flu" season they've ever seen.
are they going to use the money for what? unless they use the money to buy more food for supplies or build more hospitals and hire more health care workers or baby sitting et. billions isn't not enough. and spending billions to buy stock or support the market..who will that slow down the spread of the pandemic or virus? billions for more health workers yeah. but financial buy stock..what would that do? this crash would not have been that bad if the market was allowed to trade freely. but no the 'market' wanted to squeeze the short positions well I tell you this it's the permanent short positions that is holding this two bit market together, and nobody is stupid enough to sell insurance or sell puts. in this market. if you see a train coming and your on the train track., get out of the way...immediately.
7 billion in daily losses in GDP that is how bad pandemic can be. 7 billions is not enough for the cost of hospitals etc. and lost GDP. as schools and factorie shutdown. t
Preparing cities and infrastructure????? Hahahahah Come on...our cities and world will never Everrr ever ever ever ever be prepared for a crisis or disaster. There is nothing in place to avoid situations like the one we are in now and never will be no matter how many billions or trillions they allocate for . It's just the way the world turns...stop kidding yourself.
More billions, this time from China Isnt it wildly interesting that we have diseases and cancers that kill daily and other viral implications and addictions that never see any kind of money to fight it and if they do its tiny amounts or amounts that have to be raised by donations but here we have a virus that's not even a few months old receiving hundreds of billions in handouts to fight it....its soooooooo odd that research around the world is spending each second right now to eliminate a virus that's been here for months and we have diseases and cancers that have been here for hundreds of years and no cures yet...... Really is fascinating to see this unfold and see how money is allocated to fight one disease and not another. HEALTH AND SCIENCE Coronavirus live updates: China allocates $16 billion for prevention efforts, South Korea reported 438 new cases PUBLISHED WED, MAR 4 20207:13 PM ESTUPDATED 10 MIN AGO https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/05/coronavirus-latest-updates-china-south-korea-cases.html