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Old 27th Jun 2021, 23:19
  #193 (permalink)  
Lead Balloon
 
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Australia/India
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Ms Jane was stating a fact, not expressing an opinion.

Gigi Foster, a respected economist and regular broadcaster on that well-know right wing ratbag outlet the ABC, stated the same fact and got the same outraged response.

All day, every day, a price is put on lives and decisions are made that it's not worth the cost of saving a life. (Decisions like not having a tower at Ballina.) The decisions are not expressed in those stark terms, but that's the substance of them.

The problem with the response to C-19 is that the politicians have abdicated their responsibility to the medical experts. You ask a medical expert how to mitigate the risk of the spread of C-19 and the consequential deaths and chronic side effects, they'll tell you. And that's their job.

What they aren't asked - because they couldn't tell you the answer - is: what is the cost of those mitigating actions? If we shut down Sydney or Melbourne or whatever, what is the cost in terms of reduced quality of life, curtailed liberties, mental illness, suicides, other medical consequences, lost business and economic downturn?

The pollies are supposed to take responsibility for the decision that the mitigating steps are 'worth' taking, not the medical experts. But even if the pollies 'stepped up' to their responsibilities, they can't make a sensible decision if the costs of the mitigating steps are unknown.

The pollies have been happy to abdicate their responsibilities to the medical experts because, up until recently, they've been 'rewarded' for all of the mitigating actions. For example, Western Australians seem to love being shut off from the rest of Australia and the world.

The economic numbers are great!

Well, in that case, we should just continue with random lock downs of cities and states and keep the international borders closed indefinitely, because it's 'good' for 'economy' (and the popularity of pollies).

But, there's a very very very big cost being paid. I could max out my credit card on a bunch of 'stuff' and curl up in a safe ball of wool in my MacMansion. Materially rich and safe.

But doomed.
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