This is wrong, simply because you still haven't understood what capitalism is. You understand how to be angry about the demon in your mind that you've created and that you've named capitalism, but you haven't actually looked into what it is.
Do you write speaches for Donald Trump? I rarely see so many non sequiturs.
This is wrong.

Honor, morals - those are part of ideologies about capitalism. Capitalism is just a system, that you can neutrally describe in term of sociology, game theory and empirically in statistics. You can scientifically predict that - if unchecked - the system will always gradually disbalance itself, leading to the concentration of the capital in very few hands and the impoverishing of the many and that in the end it destroys itself because profits are dwindling when the competition between the last few big players gets fiercer and the consumers on the other hand have less and less money to spend on the goods. The capitalist can't act morally (just on the outside for PR reason) or they will be eaten by the competition. Every single one of them is forced to squeeze and squeeze the most from their workers, the environment, society, because if they don't, another one will. Those are simply the rules of the game.

Ideology starts when we want to decide to put a leash on this beast. When we want to decide how to tweak and change those rules. The problem is - those who have already amassed tremendous capital also have tremendous power. They own bank, and through them other capitalists. They own newspapers, TV stations and internet platforms, and to fortify their position they will do anything, and spread their "message" on every channel they have. They must do so, because it's in the rules of the game. They must send their legions of lobbyist to the politicians, finance the PR campaigns of their political pawns. They must try to control as many aspects of people's lives as they can. It's part of the game. The financial markets, things like Blackrock - they only gained so much power because some players took the game to a whole new level. They are completely useless in terms of productivity, sustaining the society they are built on, but they are a consequence of the game's rules.

Trying to talk morals and honor here is like taking a sword and Bushido to the trenches of WW1 or the napalmed jungle of Vietnam.

I'm starting to get concerned about the potential famine when supply chains get disrupted. This doesn't look good for countries that are not self-sufficient when it comes to food.

The bigger the machinery, the more time it takes for it to start. The potential economical effect this might have is way scarier than any virus.

I really assume that a bot goes their rounds downvoting any post with more than 300 letters.

Lets see if I'm true or not :>!

The stuff you're describing is called deductive logic. I've made a comment on here recently about that. Its also a good way to divide instrumentalisation and ideology from any abstract for sure. Interesting to read this thread for sure, though I would like people to stick to the topic at hand. Things seem quite derailed now.

From what I can observe by lurking in this thread is that action causes ideological dogmaticism whenever there is something at stake, which does make sense. Though I would state that people using a system (in a abstract sense) and the system are seperate compounds of society that you can analyze through the methods that you've already described :>.

Say, we humies and all the creatures here on earth, have no eyes and incapable of feeling the heat from the sun. The question is, will the sun shine ? if we can't see it nor feel the heat ?

The answer is, No.

Same with a tree falling where there's no one to see/hear it. If there's no one to see the tree falling, the tree simply don't exist.

Now I don't want to push any ideas. Nor my english is good enough to explain things like this well enough. So I'd recommend, if interested, to listen to two wonderful teachers/philosophers, Alan Watts and Jiddu Krishnamurti.

Alan Watts explain things so well. The most complicated things in life, he has a way to explain it so that everyone can understand.

Jiddu Krishnamurti, is a little more complicated to understand.


Here's a couple of clips that may help understand what I mean better:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgYQYUPKRHU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub6jjjpM9dQ

Sounds like bs to me, that would mean that Covid-19 is significantly less deadly than the seasonal flu epidemics, which can't be reconciled with what's been happening in China, Iran, Italy and Spain. imo media like the Financial times have a transparent agenda in promoting such stuff, they want an early end to lockdown measures for economic reasons.

So if you know what capitalism really is, why did you neglect to mention it? lol

Would you care to put some money where your mouth is, say 500 pounds? On the provision that we rely strictly on what we think we know. Shall I go first, or would you like that honor? ;p

There is a great deal of absurdity in saying that "capitalism" is the dominant economic system in this world, because this system we have is antithetical to what Adam Smith articulated in The Wealth of Nations. Crony capitalism is the reality of what this system really is, largely because of it's divergence from the theory. Any education system that neglects to mention this is engaging in indoctrination, and the ones that do are few and far between.

Well, supply chains do not need to be disrupted at all. Primary production takes place in the countryside, in farms that are production units themselves. The problem lies in the cities, really. Even primary transformation (for products that require it) takes place far from urban areas, typically. Transport does not take that much people. People keeps buying food, so that the agrifood system gets rewarded and the gears stay in motion. That will not fail because of covid19. On the other hand, there are whole sectors whose activity is paralized and we ought to be rightfully worried for them. Unless major measures by public actors are taken, it would be an economical disaster.

For a very simplistic, introductory model, you might take the logistic curve, but you can do better.

Nowadays, the standard is the SIR model for spread of sickness, that considers infected, recovered and susceptible people. It is so standarized that it is used as an example in introductory courses to differential equations.

Also, one thing is considering the spread of the sickness if unchecked, and another how the sickness behaves once measures start being taken. You will see a delay of about 1,5 the duration of the incubation period (15 days) between the measures and the effect in the infection curve.

Also, you have to consider changes of policy in the testing. Like, availability of tests and whom are the test applied to. This policy can change over time, for example, when there are few tests, they can be reserved for the patients in worse condition, like it happened in two regions of Spain for few days after march the 7th, saturday, which led to an apparent fdent in the curve that was later recovered.

The problem is fascinating and it is the work of epidemiologists to consider all the factors in the real world.

Would suggest to start with data from Italy and Spain, that were transparent, and compare daily data with the news. That might prepare yourself better for analysis in other countries.

Currently the daily increase is diminishing in Italy and Spain, with the peak to be reached soon.

In any case, the behaviour of the curve in the initial phase might be grossly assimilated to an exponential function. The daily increase duplicated every 3 days (approximately) in Italy and Spain. In the USA the curve is being steeper compared to the same stage in those European countries.

Finally, Spain, then Italy, are the European countries with the most severe measures against this sickness. Being very strict has worked greatly in South Korea and other countries. To be sure, they had the SARS as a precedent for this. Any approach that differs widely, meaning the lax measures in some countries like the Netherlands, etc, is the equivalent of making their population the subject of a risky experiment.

Edit: The simplest of approaches is considering the sickness growing exponentially. In the beginning, it will be good enough. Also, drawing it on a logarithmic scale (in base ten) will help you greatly.

Here is an update for PA. All PA schools remained closed until April 6th.

Still more new cases and deaths every day here in India. Its day 2 of 21 day lockdown imposed on Tuesday and grocery and supply delivery systems are being organized, though I doubt home delivery is going to work when every home in every neighborhood needs it. People are buying up more stuff if / when they go out and that's going to create shortages eventually.

Still calm in my area but we'll see what happens when people run out of supplies that they have stored up.

Hi there. Would you share any details about the lockdown in India? What are the exceptions? Are people allowed to shop for groceries? The lockdown is being enforced and people taking it seriously?

Also, any observations related to the food chain will be welcome.

theres a lockdown in effect atleast till 14 april..
all modes of transportation have been grounded (including private vehicles)
only emergency services are allowed to run .. i.e no impact to media, law & order, telecom, healthcare, f&b, financial services (only front ending services and stock market related services) .. no problem yet on supplies of essentials.. demand is expected to drop in metro cities as casual labour have reverse migrated and all restaurants have been shut ..
cipla is working on a generic version of remdesivir..

btw thanks for your earlier input on SIR model...

edit: numbers reported are in 600+ range.. but most believe its under reported due to a conservative testing strategy

That might be so - I just find it highly amusing to ponder about these things, and it seems to rub people off. Kinda like telling hells angels guys to take a hike with their favourite teddy-bear and cry around the corner :D

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Yes, back to our virus; pensioners are getting a smashing comeback due to this crisis. Now there's a tough elderly group in our society that isn't afraid and doesn't give in to hysteria, unlike our younger members. One person thought I was coughing when I was light throwing an item in my shopping cart. She stared at me like I was the devil himself, and literally jumped 2 meters in 1 second when I walked past here...