Corona Virus 2019-nCoV

Capitalism can do this, I think, without too much issue: just generate high-volume of emergency capacity in the health-care system - e.g. buildings that are empty and only maintained to the basic level for the vast majority of time, but with a ring-fenced fund built up from years of no emergency that can be used when the emergency hits, thus not significantly impacting the underlying economy.
Capitalism cannot do that - at least, market capitalism cannot do it (monopoly and monopsony capitalism could, in theory, but in practice doesn't). "Generating" lots of idle and unused and expensive capacity dragging on the bottom line is exactly what capitalism does not do.

That's one of the things socialism can do, and often does, that capitalism cannot do and does not. Compare Cuba's past fifty years of emergency health care capacity with any - any - of its capitalist neighbors, regardless of their relative prosperity, for example.
. I just look at it as an issue but it's just incorrect IMO to label the problem as capitalism. It's politics or how the government is handling things
In the US right now it's the politics as corrupted by capitalists and how the government has been handling capitalism.
Of course the problem is with the politics - capitalism just does what it does, it's government that is supposed to set it up, keep a leash on it, make sure it remains market disciplined, make sure it pays for the resources it uses (social and material), prevent it from destroying the commons, and so forth.

It's not capitalism's fault, for example, that the US health insurance industry is employer based while being allowed to both control access to and profit from basic medical care, creating a raft of perverse incentives that results in the majority of its citizens unable to obtain the standard medical care available to any other citizen of a First World industrialized country, and leaving the entire country wide open to viral plague. It's the fault of the Republican Party, whose corruption by capitalists prevented government regulation and setup of that industry.
 
Capitalism cannot do that - at least, market capitalism cannot do it (monopoly and monopsony capitalism could, in theory, but in practice doesn't). "Generating" lots of idle and unused and expensive capacity dragging on the bottom line is exactly what capitalism does not do.

That's one of the things socialism can do, and often does, that capitalism cannot do and does not. Compare Cuba's past fifty years of emergency health care capacity with any - any - of its capitalist neighbors, regardless of their relative prosperity, for example.

In the US right now it's the politics as corrupted by capitalists and how the government has been handling capitalism.
Of course the problem is with the politics - capitalism just does what it does, it's government that is supposed to set it up, keep a leash on it, make sure it remains market disciplined, make sure it pays for the resources it uses (social and material), prevent it from destroying the commons, and so forth.

It's not capitalism's fault, for example, that the US health insurance industry is employer based while being allowed to both control access to and profit from basic medical care, creating a raft of perverse incentives that results in the majority of its citizens unable to obtain the standard medical care available to any other citizen of a First World industrialized country, and leaving the entire country wide open to viral plague. It's the fault of the Republican Party, whose corruption by capitalists prevented government regulation and setup of that industry.
Since you agree, I'm not sure why you're posting. Just to make your usual point whether it's the subject matter or not I suppose?
 
Since you agree, I'm not sure why you're posting. Just to make your usual point whether it's the subject matter or not I suppose?
maybe because his posts actually have something to offer those who are smart enough to understand them?
 
It's not capitalism's fault, for example, that the US health insurance industry is employer based while being allowed to both control access to and profit from basic medical care, creating a raft of perverse incentives that results in the majority of its citizens unable to obtain the standard medical care available to any other citizen of a First World industrialized country, and leaving the entire country wide open to viral plague.
Actually I disagree it is entirely capitalist fault... it is the same old story. When demand outstrips supply the price goes up. Medical provisioning is entirely corruptible simply because of greed.
The main reason for national health systems is to remove the temptation of medical gouging and the extortion that goes with it.
The government sets the price that doctors can charge per session to manage this temptation. Subsidizing medications so that rampant profit taking by big Pharma is reigned in.
Nothing is more corrupting than having a person in desperate need and a person who has a solution.
Nothing is more disturbing that watching a patient die in agony in a hospital bed that he can not afford because he can not afford a relatively simple operation that can save his life.

ie.
COVID vaccine:
USA = $ you name it per dose
AUS = $4.50 - $12.00 per script.
 
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Imagine the thinking behind with holding funding to the WHO in the middle of a global pandemic?
The insanity of Trump supporters knows no bounds...

Seattle?
exchemist?
 
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src Radio this morning
Estimations are being put forward that if Australia maintains it's national lock down for 3-4 weeks more the virus will be eradicated from Australia. ( not just mitigated but eradicated)
 
Since you agree, I'm not sure why you're posting
Trolls gotta troll.
Actually I disagree it is entirely capitalist fault...
I just posted that it is almost entirely the fault of bad politics - that capitalism, like a bulldozer, is not to blame for the evil it does when poorly driven (or even, these days in America, turned loose without a driver).

I even named the political force and faction that is to blame for the evils of modern American capitalism: the American fascist movement, incarnated in the Republican Party over the past fifty years or so.
 
Trolls gotta troll.

I just posted that it is almost entirely the fault of bad politics - that capitalism, like a bulldozer, is not to blame for the evil it does when poorly driven (or even, these days in America, turned loose without a driver).

I even named the political force and faction that is to blame for the evils of modern American capitalism: the American fascist movement, incarnated in the Republican Party over the past fifty years or so.
Yes I do understand your point and also that you are on a mission... but that aside for the moment...
Have you considered that the Republican party that you so despise is a product of extreme capitalism and not the cause?
 
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