COVID-19 Outbreak (Update: More than 2.9M cases and 132,313 deaths in US) (7 Viewers)

[Goatman Saint]

How much of our economy is based on peope doing exactly that though?

If everyone in the whole country decided at the same time from now on that they were going to live within their means, and not do any frivolous spending until all their debt is paid off and they have a fund of at least 12 months worth of expenses in the bank what would the fallout of that be?

Utter and complete collapse of the US and possibly worlds economy

 

[Loose Cannon]

Yup, and with Per Diem, the Federal Gov't has figured that out. It's just not applied anywhere else.

Anyway, that's a discussion worth having, but over at www.madaboutpolitics.com or the housing one can be a separate thread. That's my lament, as a non-home owner.

Yeah - I don't think we can go much further with this without getting political, because the motivations for keeping it the way it is are likely political (and likely bipartisan).

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

LOL. Bit of a tangent but I couldn't agree with this more. My wife is super irritated because her sister and her husband informed her this weekend that they are building a custom home that costs significantly more than ours and will be uber-modern Chip and Gaines approved.

They are on actual food stamps right now. She is unemployed currently and he is a not very successful realtor. And even at full employment, they make probably 30% of what we do combined.

My wife was on the warpath this weekend - they have a $50,000 truck, a $50,000 conversion van (they have four kids), and will have a more expensive house than us. We drive Hyundais. LOL.

There was no listening to reason; that our house is in a much, much more desirable location (MUCH), that they will likely not end up being successful in that house as history has shown, amongst other huge gaps in lifestyle and future lifestyle that I won't specifically call out because I don't want to be a douche. She just knows that her sister will have shiplap and a modern farmhouse look and she can't see past that. Cracks me up.

I mostly hung out with the dog in the game room and drank booze for all of Saturday. 5 years of marriage. It took me awhaile, but I'm learning.

THIS WEEK ON HOUSE HUNTERS:

Husband - "I just got a $1200 stimulus check."

Wife: "Me too."

Husband: "Our budget is $1.2 million."

 

[Goatman Saint]

Came across this
=================

As of May 7, 2020, 76,503 Americans are confirmed dead of COVID-19. To put this in perspective:

• 58, 209 Americans died in the Vietnam War (1961-1975)
• 54, 246 Americans died in the Korean War (1950-1953)
• 25, 000 Americans died in the American Revolution (1775-1783)
• 15, 000 Americans died in the War of 1812 (1812-1815)
• 13, 283 Americans died in the Mexican-American War (1846-1848)
• 4,576 Americans died in the Iraq War (2003-2011)

Also: The annual number of deaths in the USA from infectious disease is about 75,000. That’s twelve months’ worth of deaths. We are slightly over the annual death count for infectious disease after only four months and seven days.

Don’t kid yourself that this is normal. This is not even remotely normal.

No worries. It’s just the flu. Go get your waffles and spend money!!! Get that stock market up!

 

[Saint_Ward]

Your daily Sunshine (State).

 

[Mr. Blue Sky]

For anyone who’s watching the hearings right now on the teevee- gotta hand it to Bernie, he’s still doing his thing, holding people’s feet to the fire in re to whether or not the vaccine (once one becomes available) will be accessible to *anyone* regardless of income, or whether people will only have access to a vaccine if they can afford it... And predictably, every single person he asked that question to in his allotted 5 minutes, did their absolute best to pass the buck and be as evasive as possible... Regardless of one’s political affiliation, or lack thereof- whenever Bernie’s gone, we are going to miss his advocacy and relentless fight for the little guy.

 

[Loose Cannon]

THIS WEEK ON HOUSE HUNTERS:

Husband - "I just got a $1200 stimulus check."

Wife: "Me too."

Husband: "Our budget is $1.2 million."

- yeah, they're a literal living version of that meme.

 

[sfidc3]

People (and companies) are really bad at risk assessment and mitigation.

Also general reminder to tone down political discussion

Having been a federal employee for 25 years I can tell you most (or at least some) government agencies go through stop-gap exercises of risk assessment and mitigation, contingency plans, disaster recovery, etc.

Are they useful? In my experience, not really, and it is not due to lack of effort necessarily.... Tons of funding and resources are required to do it effectively, most agencies aren't willing to make that kind of commitment....and that is at the federal government level, where they are supposed to be setting the example....I have to believe large corporations are much much worse at it....

 

[gboudx]

- yeah, they're a literal living version of that meme.

For a house-warming gift, you should buy them a large bottle of Tums. They will need it when the stress of affording that lifestyle kicks in. Do they know anything about property taxes in Texas?

 

[Loose Cannon]

For a house-warming gift, you should buy them a large bottle of Tums. They will need it when the stress of affording that lifestyle kicks in. Do they know anything about property taxes in Texas?

I'm 100% sure they haven't even sat down and put a budget together and looked at the numbers because if they did, they would know it's not sustainable.

The crazy part is he's a realtor, so he is (presumably) aware of debt to income ratios, etc.

 

[SaintInBucLand]

Came across this
=================

As of May 7, 2020, 76,503 Americans are confirmed dead of COVID-19. To put this in perspective:

• 58, 209 Americans died in the Vietnam War (1961-1975)
• 54, 246 Americans died in the Korean War (1950-1953)
• 25, 000 Americans died in the American Revolution (1775-1783)
• 15, 000 Americans died in the War of 1812 (1812-1815)
• 13, 283 Americans died in the Mexican-American War (1846-1848)
• 4,576 Americans died in the Iraq War (2003-2011)

Also: The annual number of deaths in the USA from infectious disease is about 75,000. That’s twelve months’ worth of deaths. We are slightly over the annual death count for infectious disease after only four months and seven days.

Don’t kid yourself that this is normal. This is not even remotely normal.

It definitely is bad. But comparing to wars seems a bit strange, why not compare it to health issues? Because COVID-19 attacks through disease.
Is that because it doesn't look at scary when you compare the deaths to things like cancer, of which an estimated 660,000 people will die this year. Or heart disease which is nearly 650,000 per year.

This doesn't mean we don't take COVID-19 seriously, but you are trying to frame it in a way that makes it scarier than it is.

Also is you want to use the war metric, how about compare Germany and Russia's deaths in World War I and II to COVID-19, it doesn't look near as sexy.

 

[RazorOye]

We’ll be ready to re-open when bus drivers can tell riders to wear a mask and not get spit upon.

We’ll be ready when McDonalds workers can say the dining room is closed without being shot.

We’ll be ready when park rangers can ask people to social distance without being shoved in a lake.

We’ll be ready when store employees can ask people to wear a mask before entering without being killed.

We’ll be ready when we can show we can listen and follow safety guidelines.

I don’t know when the virus will be ready for us to re-open but clearly we are not ready.

Freedom is a responsibility not just an unearned privilege to do as we please.

We are acting like a bunch of spoiled whiny brats who are more than willing to hurt others and put others at risk.

We’ll be ready when we treat each other with love and respect.

We are not ready.

- Rev. Stephen McKinney Whitaker

This is, for me, the biggest difference in what I see relative to here vs back home. The tone and content of social media messaging. The rhetoric from our elected leaders. The responsibility of those business owners.

Canada is in a tough spot financially - we are shedding jobs at a comparingly alarming rate to the US.

And Canada's rate of infection and mortality isn't that far off from the US when you remove NYC from the equation.

But my hope for here is higher because people are wearing masks when out and about. There isn't some uproar around masks, that conflate actual liberty with the need to wear a mask. The mask hasn't become some empty symbol of freedom. We don't have mass gatherings of people, armed, headed to state capitols to spit in faces or yell and demand that they can get a haircut. This hasn't become a litmus test for liberty that really only serves to highlight the privilege a lot of people have actually experienced if this is, for them, oppression.

Measures, like in the article I listed, are being taken seriously up here - and in a lot of places in the US, too, I know. But the tone of dialogue is totally different.

Now, I know a lot of people have been rude and unempathetic up here - I've heard stories from friends and acquaintances who work in grocery stores and restaurants. Many interactions are ugly.

I know we need to re-open and the steps are being implemented, but framing it as a matter of flag-waving freedom to get a haircut or go to a gym or not wear a mask seems to be a tangential argument to the real argument.

And the real argument is this oppression that has been something brewing for a long while now and has increasingly capitalized on by legislators and candidates.

 

[St. Widge]

Not shocking at all when you think about aircraft routes. Even now, they are sanitizing them at night, with I think a quick wipe down between flights (may be enough). And passengers are doing a lot of their own cleaning, generally.

I don't want to put a damper on flying because I know your job depends on it, but looking at that post from the Doctor that Oye linked above, airplanes are going to be a major issue for containing the virus in an open world. Especially if airlines continue filling every seat with a passenger and I know they likely will because that's really the only way they make money.

I mean, it ticks all the bad boxes - close proximity, face to face, recirculated air, contact for well over 10 minutes. They can sanitize and clean all they want but it probably only takes one infected person on a plane to infect at least a quarter of the people on board, maybe more.

Basically the airlines are going to have to get really creative or people are just going to have to accept that flying is really risky with regard to getting the virus.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Coronavirus infection rates are spiking to new highs in several metropolitan areas and smaller communities across the country, according to undisclosed data the White House's pandemic task force is using to track rates of infection, which was obtained by NBC News.

The data contained in a May 7 coronavirus task force report are at odds with President Donald Trump's Monday declaration that "all throughout the country, the numbers are coming down rapidly."

The top 10 areas saw surges of 72.4 percent or greater over a seven-day period compared to the prior week, according to a set of tables produced for the task force by its Data and Analytics unit. They include Nashville, Tennessee; Des Moines, Iowa; Amarillo, Texas; and — atop the list with a 650 percent increase — Central City, Kentucky...…......

MSN

 

[Taurus]

It's amazing that a certain archetype of person will look down on other people for not having 6 months of savings but then rush to bail out comapnies who don't have 6 months of savings because they're too big to fail.

I guess personal responsibility doesn't carry over to the people who run huge corporations.

Socialize the risk and privatize the profits. It's been the game plan since the 80's.