Stillwater wrote:Metallikid wrote:Stillwater wrote:We should be trying to help any allied nation's but I don't think for a second any of Russia China or any other communist country deserves our help.
And they are probably in the business of spreading false information not only about the virus but also in general so reaching out to them is useless.
I do think we are in contact with the UK and some other friendlies and may offer help once we get a lid on it but unlikely anytime soon will that be the case.
I understand people's frustrations with narcissistic leaders , but putting Americans first is long overdue if in fact that ever actually happened
Okay, listen, Russia stopped being a Communist country in 1991, so enough with that please. Companies bought up tonnes of Soviet state assets both in Russia and the other former Soviet Socialist Republics (Ukraine, Belarus, the -Stans, etc) to be run Capitalistically as it is in the US, with the exception of a few remaining Publicly owned companies like Gazprom.
This liquidation of state assets into private hands DEVASTATED Russia causing their economy to fall apart in the 90s leading to terrible wealth inequality - and with it, the rise of Putin as the worst dictator in Russian history behind Stalin.
Please educate yourself a little and stop bringing up this tired, decades-old Red Baiting.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privatization_in_Russia
I was referring to China which is communist,Thanks for the tip though I'm fully aware of Russia's status and I also don't think there isn't still a large faction of their leadership embedded in the old ways.
Anyway wasn't trying to get into some political debate. The issues are no matter how nice it would be for all the world to pool it's resources and abolish all hate for 1 cause it's never happened and won't so finger pointing no matter where it points is not a productive solution
Here's the thing, though - China isn't remotely communist any more either.
The name of the long ruling party and a few oddball departments are really all that's left, otherwise it's probably the most hyper capitalist, hyper competitive, hyper industrious place on the planet. Because of these things, there needs to be an extremely firm hand in charge to avoid a COVID style economic meltdown every few years, and that exhibits itself if the openly authoritarian way things are run - but that is not at all evidence of communism.
It's the same firm hand that doesn't have to worry about looming elections or party donors or partisan interference, so they can just steamroll through big decisions and projects - and in this case a national emergency - to get things done.
Otherwise I agree with you that it's pie-in-the-sky thinking to expect all nations to suddenly forget about the individual interests and act as one. The epidemic is not a real life variant of the movie Contact. It might be the closest thing we have in our lifetimes, though, and it's going to change both the international geopolitical landscape, as well as the internal political landscape of many, many nations.
COVID and the current oil war will make the Paris Accord a moot and useless agreement, for example, as every nation is probably going to sail past their previously impossible emissions targets. The money that was going to be transfered from developed nations to the developing world through global warming initiatives will be greatly reduced, or halted entirely. Countries are going to ramp up more independent manufacturing and supply chains that are less reliant on Chinese manufacturing. Downward wage pressure will exist while costs of living will go up.
The trickle down of this whole thing over the coning decade is going to be really unbelievable, but I will stop going off on that tangent just now. The first and only two priorities are to tackle this virus oitbreak with every effort possible, while also working to keep the wheels of our infrastructure and supply chains turning so that this doesn't multiply itself into a whole different kind of disaster.
