Coronavirus News (294)

Coronavirus News (293)

Fareed Zakaria Looks at Life After the Pandemic  What insights does it offer during a catastrophe that evokes the Spanish flu after World War I, which claimed 50 million — some reckon 100 million — lives? .......... Ancient Athens, a proud democracy, never recovered from the plague. The late-medieval Black Death all but wiped out Europe with a toll between 75 million and 200 million. Yet note that it was estimated to have run for 100 years. The Spanish flu trickled away after two. ..........  SARS-CoV-2 was sequenced almost instantaneously. .......... governments, which went for penny-pinching and deflation after the Crash of 1929, but now pour out trillions. ............. States actually “gain strength through chaos and crises.” .........  Taiwan and South Korea quickly contained the virus without totalitarian tactics. ..........  What matters is not the ideological coloration of government or its size, but its quality, Zakaria says. He argues for “a competent, well-functioning, trusted state.” ........  The United States has proved neither competent nor cohesive. It is an archipelago of some 2,600 federal, state and local authorities charged with health policy. .......... The ur-model of the strong state is France. In terms of deaths per million, it ranks far above confederate Switzerland, with its 26 cantons jealously holding off Berne. .......... Social Security is superb, Veterans Affairs a disaster. Meanwhile, officialdom has grown exponentially in a supposedly “anti-statist” country. America, Zakaria says, must learn “not big or small, but good government.” ......... America the Dysfunctional ........   Upward mobility is down, inequality is up. The universities of the United States lead the global pack, but a B.A. at one of those top schools comes with a price tag upward of a quarter-million dollars. The country boasts the best medical establishment, but health care for the masses might just as well dwell on the moon. ........... Striking a wondrous balance between efficiency, market economics and equality, those great Danes embody an inspiring model; alas, it is hard to transfer. ..........  rooted in ultramodernity: globalization, automation, alienation, mass migration, the lure and decay of the world’s sprawling metropolises. These are the stuff of misery — and the fare of cultural critics since the dawn of the industrial age. ........... “This ugly pandemic has … opened up a path to a new world.” ...........  “many rich societies” do not honor “a social contract that benefits everyone.” So, the neoliberalism of decades past must yield to “radical reforms.” Governments “will have to accept a more active role in the economy. They must see public services as investments. … Redistribution will again be on the agenda; the privileges of the … wealthy in question.” Now is the time for “basic income and wealth taxes.” ............ urge a revolution already upon us, and probably represent today’s zeitgeist and reality. .......... We are all social democrats now.  

It’s Time to Try Virtual Reality. Here’s Where to Start. Running out of fun things to do at home? The new generation of VR headsets is surprisingly approachable, with games for players of all ages. 

Apollo's Arrow The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live  ..... what it means to live in a time of plague — an experience that is paradoxically uncommon to the vast majority of humans who are alive, yet deeply fundamental to our species. 

Trump says he might leave the country if he loses the election. Is that a threat or a promise? pic.twitter.com/S7woNm88g3

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) October 21, 2020